Twilight Road to Dawn
by angelson1992
Summary: What would happen if things went differently after the Kyuubi was sealed. What if the Third Hokage had convinced Tsunade to raise young Naruto from a child. Tune in to find out as young Naruto's life unfolds and he discovers his curse and blessing.
1. Twilight Road to Dawn

Nightfall or Dawn

Hey, here is the first chapter of my newest story. I hope that it is not too bad. As always, I do not own Naruto or any other animes that I might decide to crossover. I am typing this on word so do not be surprised if it has fewer errors than usual considering I am checking over it twice as much. At the end, there will be a very important message from the original owner of the Angelson1992 account. Let the story begin.

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0

After the Kyuubi attack

"I say that we kill the demon spawn right now," said the head of the Inuzuka clan.

"No, as decreed by the fourth Hokage, he is to be seen as a hero and will not be executed," said the third as he gave a glance to the sleeping baby in his arms.

"He doesn't have to be publicly executed, we can kill him privately and say that it was caused by the sealing process," added the Haruno clan head.

"That won't work," stated the Nara head, "If we say that he was killed by the sealing process, that will only make them think that the demon was not seal properly and could come back to take its revenge."

"And what could possibly happen that would be that bad?" asked the Haruno woman.

"In the worst case scenario, the public becomes nervous and moral goes down. The tension finally snaps in anything from a civil war to mass hysteria and chaos. Half the population is dead and we cannot keep up with missions, just inviting an invasion. In our weakened state, they take us over, the fighting kills everyone off, and Konoha ceases to exist. All in all, we all die." said the Nara in a serious tone.

"Isn't that a little extreme?" asked the Haruno head.

"Yes but fully plausible and possible," replied the Yamanaka head.

"So what the hell do you suggest we do with the demon spawn?" she asked the Inuzuka head.

"I say that we let him live and don't try to kill him." he responded was acid in his voice.

"How dare you stand up for that..." the Inuzuka head was cut off by the third clearing his throat loudly.

"There is no way that you will be able to kill this child," interjected the Aburame head. "Any form of public execution is prohibited by the fourth's final decree. The law states, a Hokage's dieing decree is permanent and only another Hokage can revoke that decree. Secondly, any form of private execution will still cause the rumors that the sealing process went wrong and nothing good could come of that. There will be no execution," he said in a calm and emotionless manner.

"Well in that case, I have a suggestion," said the mutilated Danzo.

"What is it?" asked the third even though he already had an idea of what he was going to ask.

"You should know me better than that, You know what I want and I know that you will say no, but if over half the council agrees with me than I can bring Konoha into a golden age." This intrigued some of the council.

"Danzo-san, what is it that you want to suggest that could do such a thing?" asked the pink haired woman.

"We could train the child into a weapon; have him fight when we snap our fingers. We brainwash him into a mindless fighting machine that no other ninja would be able to defeat. Then, we could take over all of the other villages with the power of the Kyuubi himself." yelled the old war hawk.

"I like that plan, can you really do it?" asked the Haruno woman.

"I like it too, when can we begin?" said the Inuzuka woman with an almost evil smile.

"I can answer that for you," he said turning his attention to Danzo, "Danzo, you already know that I veto this idea and you should know that you won't be able to withdraw my veto with only two supporters."

"That is why I am hoping that I can get a few more of the councilmen's votes." he responded with smug confidence. Though that confidence was quickly lost when he looked around to meet eyes of disgust and distaste, "I guess that I can take that as a no."

"Now that is over with," began the third, "The only option left for the child is to have him adopted, but that might be too difficult since the people know that he contains the demon fox, or we may have to put him in an orphanage. Until he attends the academy in which time, we will give him an apartment."

"Well then, I volunteer to take the child into my house as a main branch member," said the Hyuuga head, shocking almost everyone in the room.

"I'm sorry Hyuuga-san, but my clan would also like to take the boy in," said the Aburame with as much emotion as ever.

"I'm afraid that the Nara wouldn't find him to troublesome to have either," said the head of the shadow clan.

"The Akamichi and Yamanaka clan also agree with the Nara."

"Wait, what the hell is going on here? Why do you all want that demon spawn in your house?" nearly screamed the pink head.

Danzo quickly got a sick smile on his face. _So then, they do not know, do they? I guess I had better fill her in._ "Oh Haruno-san, the reason that they want to take in the child is because of the fact that he has..."

"Danzo," the third said, cutting off the old man.

"Wait, what is it that you don't want me to know?" said pinky.

"Me too, what do you all know that I don't know?" said doggy.

"Hokage-sama, there is no way to avoid telling them now." said one Hiashi Hyuuga.

"Tell us already, I am tired of waiting to be put in the loop," complained a tired Inuzuka.

The old Hokage let out a sigh, he knew that this was going to become, as the Nara would put it, troublesome. "Okay, the reason that this child is also desirable is because of his blood. He has the blood of both the Uzumaki and the Kazumi clans and their special abilities in his grasp. You and I both know that without his parent, especially his father, we would have lost the war to Rock and Cloud country."

"You mean to tell me that he is the son of the fourth himself," said the canine woman incredulously.

"That is correct," interjected the Nara.

"Well than how is it that everyone else knew but us?"

"It isn't easy to keep a secret from eyes that look through walls," answered Hiashi.

"We have bugs everywhere," responded the Aburames, "literally."

"We just figured it out by using logic," said the bored Nara.

"We have a connection to the Nara," said the Yamanaka head speaking for Akamichi clan as well.

"Now that's all settled, we have to decide who gets the boy since no doubt you all want him now, right?"

"As the head of the Inuzuka clan, I propose that we get the boy," said miss doggy.

"I would rather not," responded the third.

"And why is that?"

"Because I have seen some of your females and if they knew about his legacy, there is an honest possibility that they might take him against his will to guarantee, as they would put it, strong pups. And scarring a child for life or creating another Jiraiya is not one of the things I want to be responsible for."

She was speechless. As much as she wanted to say that wouldn't happen, she really could not guarantee that. "Okay, he won't come with us," she said reluctantly.

"Then what about the Haruno clan."

"I wouldn't do that because many women in your clan are prone to marry for power and position and...Basically the same risk as the Inuzuka clan."

She began to open her mouth to counter that, "...I can't really say that wouldn't happen."

"Okay, the Haruno and Inuzuka are out but how about the Nara," said the shadow user.

"Indeed, he would learn a lot about strategy and traps, but he would be deficient when it comes to taijutsu. The same goes for the Akamichi, an expert in taijutsu but a little lacking in any ability of strategy. As for the Yamanaka clan, you would be able to give him supreme mental stability to overcome any obstacle but he wouldn't have the ability to do it."

"Well than, how about the Hyuuga?" said the pale-eyed leader.

"Almost all of your abilities include that Byakuugan of yours so you wouldn't be able to teach him anything."

"Well than, how about the Aburame clan?" asked the emotionless man.

"It is basically same reasons as the Hyuuga. He won't be able to use bugs, you can't teach him much"

"How about a collaborative effort, he can spend some time at each of our household and he would learn a bit from everyone," said the Hyuuga head.

"That is a nice idea, but what are you going to do when it is time for him to pick a wife. You are each going to try to get an heir from him. You are going to force a choice on him to pick a wife. Moreover, what will happen if he falls in love with someone who is not from your clans? What will you do?"

"What if we activate the bigamy law at that time so we each get an heir?"

"What will you do if he falls in love with another girl and doesn't want to take place in your bigamy law?"

"We'll cross that bridge when he gets there," said the Inuzuka.

"In other words, you will kill her," the third said in a matter-of-fact manner. The Ino-Shika-Cho clans and the Aburame clan just looked appalled but they knew that if the Hyuuga decided to get rid of her, they would not fight too hard. "That is why you won't have this child."

"Well then, who does get the boy?" asked the Haruno head.

"I will have to look after him since I have no hidden agenda, but if you want, you can all send your kids to the academy at the same time so if you're lucky, maybe you will get an heir from him. As for who will take care of him, I have the perfect person in mind. Meeting dismissed."

All of the council members left and the old man immediately got to work summoning Naruto's next legal guardian if he had anything to say about it. He waited to make sure that they were all a safe distance away and that no one was trying to spy on him. He pulled out an empty scroll from his desk and starts writing a message.

_Dear Jiraiya, I have an urgent mission for you that may include the fate of Konoha. I need you to track down my other old student, Tsunade. You are required to bring her here my any means necessary. I will handsomely rewards you with a weeklong free pass on "collecting research" in Konoha, which you can use at a time of your own choosing. This is a matter of grave importance. Please hurry._

_Your old teacher,_

_The Third Hokage_

He slammed down his brush and proofread the letter before going out to his balcony. There, in a cage was a messenger hawk, the hawk was trained to be able to sniff out Jiraiya's special cologne that he is required to wear when he is gone. He was not going to waste the time to send a letter to Tsunade herself; she would most likely destroy it before she even opened it. All that he could do was hope that what he offered his old student would be enough to make him actually hunt down the old woman and risk the beating of his life. With a sigh, he released the hawk only to watch it carry its message into the orange sunset.

Now all that he could do is buy some time and take care of the kid until that old pervert gets back to him with Tsunade.

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

Four days later

Sarutobi is wrist-deep in soiled diapers. _I knew that I should not have given him ramen._ This was the twelfth diaper that he had to change in the last hour. He finished applying baby powder to the now cleansed area when he heard a knock at the door. He turned toward the door and opened it to find Jiraiya panting hard.

"Hello Jiraiya, it looks like you got my letter, why are you so tired?"

"No time," the younger pervert said, "I got her to come here; hide me!"

"What are talking..." but he never got to finish as an enraged Tsunade blew through the door and stared down Jiraiya like a venomous reptile. She dove on him to punch him into the next century, which she just might have done had it not been for the Third. At the absolute last second, he threw a paper seal that attached to Jiraiya's forehead. When Tsunade's fist met his skull a second later, she punched him into a wall and he left a decent dent.

"Wait, what the hell? Why did he only make a dent in the wall? That punch should have knocked him right out of Konoha."

"That was part of his payment for getting you here successfully. I gave him a sutra seal that absorbs the chakra aspect of your punches. I will only last for a week before it burns off but he will only take a punch as if you weren't using any chakra at all."

"And why the hell would you do that? Do you know what he did to me?"

"Don't be mad at me. Sarutobi-sensei told me to bring you here by any means necessary. I was just following orders," said Jiraiya as he dug himself out of the wall.

"Come on Tsunade, there is no way that he could have done anything that bad as to warrant being beaten senseless by your super strength."

"Oh really, this is what he did to me. He walks right up to me, lifts my shirt over my head, and grabbed my breast in public, and then he pulled both my pants and panties down to my ankles and slapped my butt. In addition, before I can even process what just happened, he is already running away while yelling, 'See you later you flat-chest old super unlucky hag of a whore,'" she said still fuming from the pure embarrassment.

"Wow, Jiraiya, when I said by any means necessary, I didn't mean you could do anything like that." said the third slightly embarrassed by his student's actions.

"Tsunade, as much as he really deserves to be beaten into a pulp, we have more important matter to get to. You will have to wait one week for the seal to wear off. In the mean time, you can think of ways to torture him."

"Okay, that's fair enough," she said happy that she will have the chance for retribution, "So what do you want me here for?"

"Oh, I want you to take care of this baby," he said as he held up baby Naruto.

"What!" she said completely shocked by such a random request, "Why do I have to take care of this little squirt."

"That is because if I put him in an orphanage, he will be immediately adopted by one of the major clans."

"And that's a bad thing because?" questioned Jiraiya.

"It is a bad thing because they only want him for his blood, and I have a feeling that you would want to take him under your wing."

"And why would I do that considering that I just lost my last pupil FIVE DAYS AGO!" yelled the white haired man.

"That is because he is his son," the third replied calmly. Jiraiya was about to counter back but no words escaped his mouth. The next symptom was loss of lower jaw control and unintelligible babbling.

"I'm just going to take that as a yes, as for you Tsunade, I also want you to be Hokage," informed the Third.

"You know that I think Hokage is for old fools who want nothing more than misery, paperwork, and an early demise."

"So than you'll take it," said Jiraiya snapping out of his shock for a cheap joke at her expense.

"If I were you, I would be quiet. I still haven't forgotten what you did to me and you are doing nothing more than adding to your eventual beat down when that seal wears off."

"Now, children, I don't need half the village destroyed for no reason, _again_," said Sarutobi to end their little argument.

"There is no way that I'm going to take on the title of Hokage, nor am I going to take some little kid," said Tsunade.

"You will do it or I will give Jiraiya a year long seal. If he did all that to you when he knew you could beat him to a pulp, imagine what he will have the guts to do when you cannot hurt him. And I will teach him a genjutsu so powerful that even you won't be able to detect him when he is spying on you."

"...You are an evil old man, Sarutobi-sensei," she sat down to think for a bit, "Okay, you win. I will take on both jobs, but only on a trial basis. If I find it too reprehensible, I will be out of here before you know it."

"Fair enough, Jiraiya will also help in raising the boy and, if he chooses to be, an advisor to the Hokage. Oh and one more thing, the people know about the Kyuubi," he said as he gave baby Naruto his favorite toy, a stuffed fox.

"I have no objections to raising the boy," stated Jiraiya in a formal manner.

"Good, let's see just where this all goes." said the Third as he handed the child to Tsunade.

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

Five Years Later

Our little blond hero is walking down the street. It is a clear and normal day. He just came from training and he went to the park to relax in the shade of a good tree. In mid-stride, he suddenly turned to his left and barely dodged a platter of rusty forks that fell from the sky. He looked back at the near "accident". That is the fifth time that has nearly happened this month, weird. He kept walking as if nothing happened because he far too used to it by now. He had grown accustomed to that feeling of hatred that radiated of most of the villagers. He did not give a second thought to when sharp objects from kunai to blunt objects like flower pots fell from the sky. He could not care less when he walked into a room and everyone looks at him as if he punched their puppy. It happens so often that he barely notices anymore. He simply assumed that they were jealous because he was the Hokage's son. (Just to clarify. He is Tsunade's adopted son. No one knows about him being the fourth's son. Not even he does.)

He did not even turn back as he looked on to the park. It was still a short distance away and he got there relatively safely. He found his favorite tree and decided to do something new. He walked up the tree and hung upside down from his feet. The first branch he hung from left his head in an awkward position with a squirrel hole. He tried different positions and branches until he found a spot where he could see the whole park and all its inhabitants, even if he was upside down. His head rested in a comfortable bushel of leaves that felt as soft as a pillow to him. He thought back to his day of training today. His mother was teaching him advanced chakra string manipulation and he had just managed to master his own signature technique. He called it the flash step.

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

Flashback

Naruto was in another sparring match with his mother. Currently, she had pulverized half of his bones and fractured his skull. After training, he would have to heal himself with whatever chakra he would have left. Her thinking was that after a few years of sparring, he would have come across every injury that a ninja could possibly have and if he can heal himself completely, he could heal others just as efficiently. Then they would repeat this process until he had a great tolerance for pain, a mastery of the medical jutsu and sufficient experience, when he finally just plain runs out of chakra, he rest and his chakra capacity rises a little and it helps in his taijutsu and chakra control.

He was at about half way through the third cycle of his mother beating him to a pulp when Tsunade stopped the onslaught. "Okay, now that we are warmed up," she said to the poor boy trying to heal his wounds, "We will continue your training with chakra strings. A master of chakra strings will find them more useful than any jutsu or weapon."

"Okay," he responded as he finished healing himself, "but can I show you something first?" She did not object so he took it as a yes. He turned towards a target and focused on it, "I call this the Flash step." His form vanished in a burst of speed and the target that was his opponent exploded into splinters. His form reappeared half a second later. Tsunade was impressed that her son had created his own jutsu. She was even more impressed that it did not need any hand signs.

"Let me guess how it works, you use a more general form of my punches across one side of you body, usually your back. When you gather enough chakra, you release it like an explosion and it fired your forward too fast for most people to see. You use a combination of the after vision and a small genjutsu to trick your enemies into thinking that you're either didn't move or you just plain disappeared."

Naruto was stunned that she figured it out by only watching him do it once, "How did you figure all of that out?"

"Because I had already thought of and nearly perfected that jutsu, the only reason I almost never use it is that you have to be small and aerodynamic to do it and...I'm not," she said in a tone that said to leave it there.

"Wow, so is there anything that I'm doing wrong with it?" he asked, wanting to perfect his new jutsu.

"No, from what I've seen, that was about everything that was suppose to happen. In fact, we are going to start incorporating it into your training so that you can go farther and farther distances. So, you will be able to cross the village from side to side in seconds."

"Awesome, I can't wait until we get started!"

"You don't have to, we start now. I want one lap around the entire estate in one second." Naruto sighed, _Note to self, be careful what you wish for._ Therefore, they continued their training.

End Flashback

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

He shuttered, the memory of that training session would haunt him forever. He was still hanging from the tree like a bat and just amusing himself by using chakra strings to grab leaves and place them in the shape of the Konoha symbol on the ground. That was until a gust of wind blew them all away. He watched them fly off in all directions and lift into the air. He got an idea; he reestablished his chakra string connection to all of the leaves and made them dance. They fluttered in an elegant manner around his body. The leaves reflected the light in flashes as they twirled in circles. Finally, he sliced each of them in half and threw them to the wind.

He followed the trail of leaves to a man. He had silver hair that looked lopsided and a mask, he was reading an orange book. Naruto recognized the man from his file; He was looking at the infamous Hatake Kakashi, a.k.a., the copy ninja. He decided to walk up to the masked man.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm reading."

"What is under the mask?"

"Another mask"

"What's under the second mask?"

"My face is."

"Can I see your face?"

"No."

"Why can't I?"

"No one has,"

"What are you reading?"

"A book"

"What's the title of the book?"

"It is Icha Icha Paradise."

"You read that book?"

"Yes I do."

"Why?"

"I like it,"

"Are you a pervert?"

"I could be."

"Does that mean yes."

"Yes."

"Can I have a mask?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What if I knew the guy that makes those books?"

"Then yes, if I can meet him."

"What if I can bring him here?"

"I will give you a life time supply if you can bring him here."

"I'll be right back." That entire conversation just took ten seconds. Naruto came back to the park with Jiraiya chasing after him. "I'm back, how I got him here, I would rather not say, but he is here." Kakashi could barely believe what he was looking at. Here, in front of him, was the legendary Toad Sage and the author of his favorite book. To say that he was surprised would be like saying that the ocean is only a little wet.

He looked back and forth from the kid to the old man, "You actually got him? How did you do that?"

"He calls himself a super pervert for a reason," said Naruto, wanting to end it right there, "Hey, you promised me a lifetime of masks if I brought him to you."

"Wait, you brought me here for nothing?"

"No, we are going to train a bit later, but after I get my mask."

"You manipulative evil genius," said the masked pervert, "Good job." he said giving him a high five. He then pulled out a scroll and set it on the ground. Seconds later, a box full of mask was materialized." All right, here you go, this is my own personal mask. These are impossible to see through, even against a Byakuugan, and when you need to eat, they have a genjutsu so that it looks like the food passes right through the mask when you take it off to eat."

"Awesome," he said as he took one out from and box a put it on, "How do I look?"

They both looked at him for a few second before deciding their opinion, "Wow kid, you're going to be beating the ladies off with sticks." said the younger pervert.

"Seriously, you going to end up with a little fan club, little dude," said the older pervert.

Naruto did not quite know what it meant to have a fan club full of insane fan girls yet so he asked, "Is that a good thing?"

Both perverts simply looked at each other for two second, "Sure, yeah, it's a very good thing," they both said at the same time. _We are screwing this kid over, but it is going to be so worth it._

"Okay," he said with no way of knowing better, "I will keep the mask."

"Good, now lets get training," said Jiraiya as he picked up Naruto by his collar, "Come on Kakashi, I can sign some books for you and give you the next book." He was right behind them all the way.

They walked to a nearby training ground that had a few training post already set up. Jiraiya turned towards Naruto, "Naruto, we are going to teach you some new jutsu."

"Really!" he said far too excited. He would always be a sucker for new jutsu, "Well than lets start."

"That's the sprit boy. Okay, here are the hand signs," he performed the designated movements, "It is called the Kage Bushin no jutsu." Naruto did not say anything; he just did the seal and channeled a whole bunch of chakra. An army of Naruto clones instantly engulfed the trio. "Too much kid, too much. Get rid of them. NOW!" said a cramped and very uncomfortable Jiraiya, "All you have to do is imagine them disappearing and their chakra returning to you."

"Okay, I will try." He focused on the clones and closed his eyes. He envisioned them turning to chakra and returning to him. When he opened his eyes, they were all gone. Jiraiya and Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief. They both turned towards the boy, shocked at how many clones this kid was able to make and he did not even seem winded. Naruto looked at both of them, "What's next."

Both men looked at each other. "We have a lot of work to do," they said at the same time.

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

A few months later

Everything has been going well in Naruto's life. His training with the two perverts had taught him a lot of jutsu. He even learned to do a one-handed Rasengan in only a week. He had just mastered the Mystical Palm medical ninjutsu and could use chakra strings as if they were his hands. He was getting stronger everyday as his taijutsu and chakra capacity grew with each day. Not to mention that he could now use the Flash step jutsu that he created nearly perfectly in min-air combat. Too bad for him that this day would decide the rest of his life, if he lived that is.

Naruto headed towards the park. All that he wanted to do this day was to bask in the sun and sit in a tree to watch the children play. He had picked up a habit of helping out children every so often when there was a bully or someone launched another kid into the air on the seesaw. You would be surprised how often that would happen. Some of the children even called him a masked hero. He found his favorite tree. It was a nice healthy one with lush, soft leaves and an incredible view of the entire park. He was hanging like a bat on his usual branch. However, he swore that it was feeding off his chakra. He found it odd that the leaves would always be a little greener when he left than when he first got there. Everything was going normally at the park and it seemed that everything was all right.

That was until he heard someone yell, "Get away from us you big fat oafs." He turned towards the voice and met with the scene of two bullies terrorizing a group of kids. There were two boys that were already on the ground and defeated and two girls that were trying to fight them off but were losing badly. Another girl was on her knees and crying.

He walked over to the group of kids. Just when a punch was about to connect to one of the girls, he grabbed the fist about an inch in front of her face. "You shouldn't be fighting in the park," he said in a taunting manner to the two bullies.

The bully looked down at who caught his punch and laughed, "Well than what are you going to do about it short stuff."

Naruto just glared at the boy who made fun of his height. He walked over to a tree, and drilled a hole strait threw it with a Rasengan. He shot the boy a hard glare before saying, "I'm sorry, you underestimated me. Do you want to try again?" he said as he focused all his killing intent on the bullies. The two bullies literally crapped in their pants and quickly made their retreat, very awkwardly. Before he could even turn around, both girls hugged him from behind. When he finally managed to slip out of their death grip, he walked over to the two unconscious boys. He easily healed their wounds and they woke up seconds later. He faced the entire group and did Kakashi's patented eye-smile. Before the group could even thank him, he simply faded from existence before their eyes.

"Where did he go?" asked the girl with platinum blond hair.

"I don't know, but I think that he is stronger than he looks," said the boy with a hairstyle that looked like someone just stopped halfway through.

"And he looks pretty strong to begin with," said the biggest member of the group.

"He could have at least given us a name," yelled the impotent pink head.

"E-even if he left no n-name, we will a-always r-remember him," added the quiet, pale-eyed girl.

The entire group of them just looked at each other and nodded. They decided at that moment that one day, they would all find out who was the mysterious person that saved them.

As for Naruto, he was hiding up a tree while quietly chuckling to himself. "Well, that looks like all that's going to happen today." He got down from the branches and was gone the next second. Naruto decided that he was in the mood for some ramen. He was in front of his favorite ramen bar in mere seconds. "Hey old man," he yelled across the bar, "I will take the usual."

The old man and his daughter have always been kind to Naruto when all the other adults would kick him out of their shops. The old man brought out a platter of ten different types of ramen almost as if he was expecting him to come. "Welcome Naruto, you came right on time as always. I just finished making a new batch."

"Yeah," he said while laughing as he stared at his meal hungrily, "I could smell the ramen all the way from the park. I couldn't wait to get some so I came right over."

"You must really have some nose to smell it all the way from the park," said the old man as he looked up at the steam from his house. He noticed that it was heading in the direction of the park. _Is he serious about smelling it that far away?_ He decided to shrug it off and watch his best customer consume insane amounts of ramen.

About thirty minutes in, Naruto was finally full to the brim. He let off a huge smile as he patted his tummy. He then got up so that he could walk off his substantial meal. It was several minutes into the walk that he noticed that it was beginning to become very dark. "Well, there goes the day," he said as he turned around and started for home.

The only problem was that he had ventured into a sector of Konoha that he had never been before. He tried to find something that would tell him where he was, but it was too dark to see the hand in front of his face, much less, the road or any defining features to tell him where he was. He decided that he would jump on top of the roof and see if he could find his home. When he found the highest roof, he jumped as high as he could. When he felt that he was high enough, he searched for anything that could help him find his way home. He easily spotted a large house with lot of windows with lights on. "Ha, there it is, The Hokage Mansion."

In mid-air, he used his flash step to lightly land across the street of what he thought was his home. When he approached the gates, his first thoughts were that there was not a gate around his home. It was then that he noticed the Hyuuga symbol on the door. "Oh crap. How did I end up at the Hyuuga compound?" he said with a sigh, "At least I know my way home from here," he said with yet another sigh.

Just as he was about to leave, he collided with a dark figure that was running away from the compound. The figure dropped a sack that was slung over his should. When the sack landed, it let out a very feminine yelp of pain. Naruto was instantly very suspicious when he heard the sound. When the dark figure tried to get back up and run away with the sack, Naruto block his way.

"Get out of my way, kid," said a deep male voice from the capture.

"Not until you tell me what's in that sack," he said, holding his ground.

"It isn't any of your business what is in this sack," responded the assailant.

"It is if there is a Konoha citizen or shinobi in that sack, because if it is, then it is my duty to stop you," said the blond-haired boy while taking an attack stance.

"If that is the way you are going to do it, then is looks like I will have to kill you."

"Come and try."

They both faced off with each other. The mysterious shinobi acted first by launching a barrage of shuriken. Naruto threw out his arms in front of him and attached chakra strings to all of the weapons in mid-flight. He raised his arms and the weapon followed. Every shot flew over his head, pulled a U-turn and attacked the Cloud ninja. The man was ready and simply used a kunai to block them all.

Naruto severed his connection to the weapons and used his super strength to punch the ground. The resulting earthquake threw the man off balance and Naruto seized the opportunity to throw a kunai and perform some hand seals. The kunai multiplied into twenty before the man's eyes. He reacted quickly by performing hand seals of his own and creating a wall of electricity. All of the fake kunai turned into smoke on contact while the real one was nothing more than slag on the ground.

The mysterious figure started another set of hand seals while Naruto had started his own set also. They both stopped at the same time.

"_Shock bullet no jutsu."_

"_Vortex Shield no jutsu."_

The air around Naruto picked up considerably and circled him at gale force pace. The lightning bolt thrown by the cloud ninja clashed with the shield of wind. The bolt of energy began to pierce deeper into the rotating winds. Naruto quickly increased the thickness of the tornado shield. The cloud man responded by pushing all of his chakra into the attack. Two clashing forces sent sparks flying in all directions. Shards of lightning scorched the earth and incredible winds sliced it in two. Naruto saw the smirk that was on the cloud ninja's face but did not understand why until he looked at the lightning bolt and saw that it was inching closer to him.

Naruto started another set of hand seals. Just as the lightning was about to break through his barrier, he finished the required seals. The tornado of wind condensed and shrank. The radius, height and thickness became less and less as the spin only continued to increase. Not before long, the only thing fighting back the force of the lightning bolt was a thin disk of wind. The cloud ninja saw what was happening and pushed even more chakra into the bolt of lightning.

The bolt crackled and snapped with repressed fury as it fought the wind. Naruto brought his hands up towards the bolt of electricity and wrapped it in chakra strings. Luckily, for him, electricity does not travel across chakra. Once he had a firm hold on it, he began to pull it slowly off course. The cloud ninja, since he cannot normally see chakra string, did not know what he was trying to do. Naruto on the other hand was drawing the energy bolt farther to the right. Before the cloud ninja even noticed that Naruto was redirecting his attack, it was too late. Naruto's disk of wind had captured the attack and the bolt of lightning was spinning around him, completely under his control. Naruto canceled his jutsu and the wind dissipated, launching the bolt that contained so much of the enemy ninja's own strength back at him. The enemy ninja did not expect his attack to backfire, could not react quickly enough to the strike, and took his own attack full on.

Both fighters where panting hard. The cloud ninja had taken server damage and lost a lot of chakra when his attack reflected back on him. It took a lot of chakra and concentration to use two different jutsu and more chakra strings than he had ever needed to use. In addition to that, he had taken many cuts from his own winds when he was dragging the bolt of lightning.

They both looked at each other. The cloud ninja could not believe that he had taken this much damage from a five year old. They both looked at each other. "You are pretty good for a pre-academy student."

Naruto stood up tall, when a worthy opponent comments on your skills, it a high honor to ninja. "Would you expect anything less from the Hokage's son," he said as more of a statement than question.

"You're the Hokage's son?" he said, not recognizing him with the mask that he rarely takes off, "Now it makes sense how you are that strong at such a young age." He stopped talking as if he was in deep thought. "I guess you would be just as valuable as this little girl." The cloud ninja then started another set of hand seals. Naruto did not have any time to react before electricity reached up from the ground and trapped him inside a giant bubble. "How do you like my _Plasma Prison no jutsu_?" Naruto fought with all he had left, but he did not have too much chakra left. He was tired, cold, and... Why was he light-headed? "Oh, and this thing comes with a bonus. The electricity burns oxygen so you should be passing out any minute now." True to his words, Naruto was now suffering from a headache that just kept getting worse and his vision was getting a little blurry. "Don't worry, you won't die. But there isn't any way to escape from this jutsu."

"Do you think that you will get away with this? All of the noise that we made in that fight, there will be an army of ninja here any second," yelled the blond boy.

"Well then," he said as he got up close to his new captive, "I guess we'd better get going."

"You won't get away with this. They will catch you. You will fail. You..."He could not finish as he finally gave up consciousness.

The cloud ninja just laughed, "Sweet dreams." He grabbed the ball of electricity and the sack with the girl and left in a blur of speed.

(I want you to know that I could stop this now, but I am not that evil)

O 0 O 0 O 0 O 0

In Naruto's Mindscape

Naruto finds himself lying in a field of grass. "Where am I," he wondered aloud. He looked around to see nothing but rolling hills of grass for miles and one trail. He slowly got up to his feet and noticed that he clothes had changed. He was wearing all black, including black gloves and shoes. Draped around his neck were silver chains with many charms of different shapes. The cloth was that of the finest silk and seemed almost tailored specifically to him. (Think of the Organization 13 members from Kingdom Hearts) He took a moment to appreciate his new attire before deciding to go on the trail. As he traveled the hills, he took the time to take in the scenery, considering there was not much else to do. The grass was the healthiest green and a very consistent. There was not a cloud in the sky, and yet, there were not any stars either.

He looked forward and in the distance, he could see a red, blinking light. He picked up the pace and took on a light jog towards the red aura. As he approached, he could see the figure that was radiating the pulsating aura. He closed in on the man and was quickly mere feet away from the figure.

A small distance before him was a tall man of medium build. He wore a hooded cloak of dark crimson that flowed in winds that were not there. Even when the cloak would lift up enough to see his feet or face, the light would almost fade to hide his body. The hair that leaked out of the hood was a burnt chestnut brown that matched his tan skin. He almost seemed to be a normal man. Although, the most terrifying things were the almost transparent nine tails that flowed behind him, radiating the eerie crimson light.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked even though he had a good idea who he was.

"I am the one who brought you here." The mysterious man said nonchalantly.

"I see. So then, where exactly is here?" Naruto asked, noting that he just dodged his questions.

"This is your mindscape," said the mysterious figure. He then saw the blank expression on the boy's face and gave a light sigh, "Before you ask, it is a physical manifestation of your consciousness in the form of a tangible landscape."

"Okay," he said, not really understanding his words, "Why am I here?"

"You are here to make a choice," he said as a fork in the road formed where the man was standing, "Do you choose the path of light," he said as he gestured to his right, "or the path of darkness," he said pointing to the other. "I must warn you that your choices will have dire consequences."

Naruto stared down both of the roads as he tried to pick a road. First, he looked down the road to the left. In the distance, he could see something coming into existence. The kidnapper was carrying Naruto in the orb and the sack with the girl into the distance. Suddenly, Naruto woke up again. This time, when he fought against the prison, he easily pierced the prison with his newly clawed hands. Naruto annihilated the poor, defenseless cloud ninja now made blood fountain. The real Naruto got his first good look at the other Naruto. As he stared into the red eyes, the visage struck terror into his heart. He was soaked in the enemy ninja's blood and the ethereal chakra burned off his mask, showing the broadened wicker marks. He raised his head and howled at the full moon as his new fangs gleamed in the moonlight. It was at that second that he turned his sights on the bag with that girl inside. The scene ended with a crimson flash and a heart-stopping scream.

"Well, that is definitely not that one that I'm choosing. No way in the world is I going to let that happen. NO, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, NO WAY." He said as he nearly sprinted away from the sight.

He looked own the road of light, hoping for a better alternative. Too bad for him, it was not much better. He looked down the road to see the same scene of the cloud ninja carrying him away. This time, when he woke up, he fought against the prison, but he could not escape from the jutsu no matter what he tried. Despite his struggles, the cloud ninja did not even slow down or look back. After another minute of trying to escape, he passed out again. He and the captured girl were carried away to never be seen in the walls of Konoha again.

"Well, that isn't much better." He said as he walked away from the road.

He came face to face with the crimson-robed man, "So, which road do you choose to travel?" said the older man.

Naruto looked the man right in the face, "I choose neither," he answered. As soon as he uttered those words, a middle road formed between the two others. Naruto examined the newly formed road for a second before traveling along it, past the mysterious crimson man, "I'm taking the middle road."

The man just let out a quiet chuckle, "You mean the Twilight road to Nightfall?" he asked.

Naruto stopped mid-step and only turned his head to look at the man, "No, the Road to Dawn."

O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0

Well, that is the end of my first chapter. It also explains that title of the story. Tune in next time to find out if they survive.

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S MESSAGE**

My sister has informed me that I am to tell anyone that wants to continue the story, "30 Days to Kill," can have it without having to contact her. All that is required is that you give credit to her at least once for the original idea. Moreover, anyone that wants to use any specific aspect of the story from jutsu to characters to blood line abilities can use them without contacting her also. The same rules apply. Any one who wants can take it and if multiple people want it, they can all have it. Try your best and enjoy.

Also, just from me. **REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW PLEASE**. Have a good day.


	2. Don't underestimate me

He came face to face with the crimson-robed man, ÒSo, which road do you choose to travel

Hey, it is my second chapter. I've been typing all summer and I must say that it is fun. Okay, one more thing. If you are wondering why I use so many time skips, it is for two reasons. One- I'm not at the real plot yet and it helps for getting me to the main plot sooner. Two- If you know all of his abilities, the future battles won't be as fun to write. I hope you enjoy and that you review, positively. Although I will take flames if they have reason behind them.

He came face-to-face with the crimson-robed man, "So, which road do you choose to travel?" said the older man.

Last time on TRTD

Naruto looked the man right in the face, "I choose neither," he answered. As soon as he uttered those words, a middle road formed between the two others. Naruto examined the newly formed road for a second before traveling along it, past the mysterious crimson man, "I'm taking the middle road."

The man just let out a quiet chuckle, "You mean the Twilight road to Nightfall?" he asked.

Naruto stopped mid-step and only turned his head to look at the man, "No, the Road to Dawn."

What was previously a small chuckle now was a raucous laughter. The field dissolved into a huge room containing a giant cage. There was no source of light in the entire place, but he could still see very well. The water came up to ankles, and yet they did not feel wet or cold. That was when he noticed that the man was gone. "Where in the world did that man go?" he asked aloud as he searched around.

What he found instead was a paper seal with the kanji for "seal" that was on what he could only assume was the door for the gigantic cage. What confused him even more was that the seal was currently on fire. Naruto watched as the seal on the cage slowly burned off, inch by inch. The blue flame slowly engulfed the piece of paper. Naruto tried to peer into the darkness that was inside of the cage, but all that he could see was the same darkness. That was when the mysterious red man appeared in the shadows.

"Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked again.

"I am the Kyuubi no kitsune."

"Why am I still here, I made my decision just like you asked me to."

"You are still here because you made the right choice, otherwise, you would be dead and I would be free."

Naruto looked up at the locking seal as the strange fire slowly burned it away, "But, you are still going to be freed. Does that mean…"

"No, you won't be dieing today, not if I have any say," he said with a smirk as he had lift his hood so Naruto could see his face, "and as king of the demons, I get say in pretty much everything."

Naruto looked up at the burning seal, "What happens when that seal is completely burned off?"

"Well, it all has to do with the path you choose. Most people would choose the path to darkness. They get to kill their enemies and escape but I get to take over their body as my chakra slowly decays it. When the body finally gives up, I escape and continue as if nothing happened."

"What would you do if someone shoes the path to light? Would not you die?"

"No. That would mean that the person decided to reject my demonic help so I would create a necklace around the person's neck. When the person finally dies, all of my remaining essence returns to the necklace and I am free again."

"So what would have happened if I chose nightfall?"

"Well, you would have had a chance at life. Anytime that you would have been in vital danger, you would be able to tap into my chakra, but if you did that too many time. Basically, the same as darkness would happen."

"Okay, so what happens if a person picks the right choice and chooses dawn?"

"I feel that I should tell you as we come to that. First, the seal has to fully burn off."

"Wait a second, why should I trust you?"

"Do you have a choice?" Naruto just nodded and waited patiently for the rest of the seal to finally burn off. It wasn't long before the blue flame finally burned the last of the piece of paper.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and Naruto was forced to slam his eyes shut. When his eyes readjusted to the light, he looked around to find that he was in the lightning prison again. The villain that kidnapped him looked back, "Oh, I see that you have woken up. You must be exceptionally powerful; no one that I've used this on yet has ever woken up while still inside of it," he said as he set the bag holding the girl down.

Naruto didn't waste the oxygen to respond and simply glared at him. He just shoved his new clawed hands into the wall of electric chakra and pierced it easily. He quickly ripped that bubble a new one and shoved his body threw the hole while sustaining mild electrical damage. As soon as he was completely out of the prison, he took deep gasping breaths and glared at the man again. "I told you that there was no way that you would be able to get away."

"Oh spare me the lecture; you can't do anything after being in my prison for that long."

Naruto grasped the sheathed sword at his right hip. "You really think that, don't you?" he said as his form vanished in a blur of speed. Before the cloud ninja could even blink, Naruto was behind him, back to back with his sword half sheathed.

The cloud ninja took in a shaky breath before gasping for air. "How…how did you do that?" he whispered with a shutter.

Naruto turned to stare at him with only with his eyes giving an uncaring aura, "You underestimated me." He then fully sheathed his sword with a "chink". As the sound radiated threw the air, the cloud ninja exploded in a fountain of his own blood. Naruto turned away from him as he looked at Konoha which was a short distance away. "Don't worry, I only punctured your lung and paralyzed you. You won't die, but when I'm done with you," he stopped to give the man a glowing red-eyed glare, "you will wish that you were dead." With that said, Naruto started a huge set of hand seals. Normally, when he needs to use flash step to get somewhere, he can do it with thought alone; but when he needs to bring along other people with him, he has to use hand seals to focus the higher amount of chakra that's needed. It took him nearly three minutes of constant hand seals to gather enough chakra to move three people nearly five miles but it worked successfully and all three were in front of the Konoha hospital. Naruto took in a deep breath as his eyes slowly crept close. He only had enough chakra left to look up to make sure that they made it to the right place before he passed out.

Days later

Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes, only to be blinded by the hospital lights. He let out an annoyed moan before opening his eyes again. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the bright lights, the memories of what happened before came flooding into his brain in painful detail. He tried to sit up so he could get a good look around, but was stopped by a burning pain that seemed to crawl over his skin. He let out a loud groan as he quickly fell back down on his bed. _Okay, that was a bad idea._ He could tell by the over powering sterilized scent that he was definitely in the hospital.

It took a lot of will power, but he finally managed to get himself on his own two feet. He limped over to the mirror to survey the damage to his body, but what he saw was about the last thing he was expecting. Staring back at him from the mirror was another version of himself. What nearly scared him senseless was that there were nine golden tails trailing behind his reflection and two fluffy golden fox ears on top of his head. He reached his hands up slowly to feel if the ears were actually real and felt them twitch in his hands. "Ah, what the hell is this?" he yelled loud enough to actually shake the hospital.

He reached behind him and tried to grab one of the tails, but the thing wouldn't stay still for a second. After more useless attempts, he got an idea. He simply focused his mind and willed the tails to move as he would his hands or chakra strings. What surprised him was that they acted almost the exact same as his own chakra strings. He managed to grab a hold on the tail and was almost speechless by how soft and pleasant to the touch they were. He continued to brush the tail and found that it made him very happy. It wasn't much later until he found himself purring and effectively freaked out.

"Okay," he said as he tried to slow his panicked breathing, "no more touching the new body parts." He sat back down on the bed and tried to clear his mind and think of what to do next. "Okay," he began aloud, "I can't very well walk out like this. I would cause a panic and I might be killed if they think that Kyuubi has taken my body over. If I stay here, someone will eventually come in and they will either scream or attack me on sight, both options I don't find pleasurable."

He looked around and saw the mirror again. Then he noticed something weird. Why wasn't he in pain anymore? He couldn't even roll over before but now he was walking around like the fight didn't even happen. He looked over his skin and the electrical burns that he would have assumed should have been there were completely healed without leaving so much as a scab.

As much as he wanted to stay on the subject a bit longer, he really needed to get somewhere private before he was discovered. He walked over to the window and opened it wide, being careful to not let any of his new features come in view of the public. He had it all planned out. He was going to jump out the window and use his flash step to get to his house unnoticed. Then he would simply land on the roof and get in through his window from there.

Just as he was about leap through the window, he suddenly stopped when he realized that he was still in his hospital gown. "Great, how am I supposed to change clothes with tails and claws in the way?" he asked no one in particular. Although that didn't mean that he wouldn't get an answer.

"**All you have to do is get dressed as you normally would and everything else will fall into place," said the demonic voice in his head.**

"Okay, if you say it will work." He looked around, but he didn't find his usual orange outfit. What he did find in the corner instead was the clothes that he was wearing in his mindscape. Not seeing any other choice, he slipped the clothes on like normal and, proving the Kyuubi is not a liar, they slipped on as if the tails didn't even exist. He finished when he put the silver chains around his neck. That was when he noticed something that he hadn't noticed when he was in the dreamscape. There was also a sword, inside its sheath, that was leaning on a wall. He walked over to it and scrutinized the dark sword. _This was the sword that I used to defeat that cloud ninja._ When he picked it up, it seemed to pulsate. It flew from his hand, strait into a slot within the robes. He watched the sword to see if it would make any more movements before heading to his room's window.

He was just about to jump out the window and get home so he could find a way to go out in public again. But just as he was about to leap onto the first rooftop, the door knob clicked as it began to turn at an agonizingly slow rate. The door opened and a nurse stood in the door way. She looked around the room and saw nothing unusual. She observed the boy that was under the bed covers and snoring. She checked off a box on her clipboard and left. Naruto let out a soft sigh before getting out from under the covers. _Too close for comfort._

He got a running start before bolting out of the window. He quietly landed on a nearby roof and found his house as quickly as he could. As soon as he spotted it, he used flash step to try to get to his roof without being seen. That was what he tried to do, what really ended up happening was that he _way _overshot his goal and was currently soaring over his roof. As he watched the ground rush by him, he only had one thought. _Why didn't it occur to me that my chakra might be different if so many other things about me changed?_

As he pondered this thought, he looked forward to get an idea of just where he was going to be landing. From what he could tell, he it looked like he was headed for either the book store that specializes in Jiraiya's books, the female hot spring, or the viewing of Icha Icha Violence, the movie. He honestly didn't know which one would be worse; well, he really didn't want to fall in the hot springs because no one likes wet fur. Not that they were great options in the first place. And knowing his luck, he would be landing in the hot springs.

While he was awaiting his dreaded fate, he assessed his options. He could just let this happen and take the punishment that he probably deserves for escaping the hospital, or he could use his flash step again. The only thing was that he could either be in a much better situation, or it could jettison him into even more trouble. _Well, you know what they say. Nothing ventured, nothing gained._

He aimed for the closest empty training ground that he could find. He focused the absolute minimum for the flash step and vanished in a blur of speed. It turns out that even the absolute minimum is still too much, as he found out when he crashed into the ground at a hundred miles per hour.

He slowly dug himself out of the crater. "Okay, that was a _really _bad idea. I would have rather fallen in the hot springs." He looked around and nearly jumped for joy, if he could have even gotten up, that no one was there. But he knew that an explosion like that would attract some attention pretty quickly. There was one thing that he was not going to do again, and that was the flash step. He knew a few genjutsu but if anyone over chunin lever came, they would just dispel it. He can't use any ninjutsu or taijutsu on a fellow Konoha shinobi, especially with his chakra acting crazy. That only left him with one last option; he would have to run away.

And so he did. Just in time because the ANBU arrived mere seconds after he left. "Okay," said the captain of the ANBU squad, "Does anyone see the cause of the explosion."

"Negative," answered the lieutenant, "but some of us witnessed Tsunade-sama's son walking away from the area but they could not get a good visual. They also reported that his chakra signature was a little different but still recognizable."

The captain thought about it for a second, "The difference in his chakra is most likely due to he was training hard and is tired. And he is very capable of causing a crater of this size. I say our work is done here. Men, move out." With that, they all went poof and were gone just like that.

Naruto was walking along the streets like he didn't have nine extra appendages, which was the case. All that he had to do was use a simple Henge no jutsu. He had, basically, been mentally kicking himself for the last five blocks for not thinking of it sooner as he slowly meandered home.

He finally made it to his room and was sure to lock the door behind him. He sat on his bed, "Okay Kyuubi, I need to know what the hell happened to me."

The man in red materialized beside him on his bed. "Okay, you probably have a lot of questions."

"No, I completely expected to wake up with tails."

"I understand how you would feel in this situation. So, I will explain everything and anything that you want to know."

"Okay, why is it that I feel like I have at least ten times as much chakra as I should have?"

"That is because you are now a half-demon; a fox half-demon, a kitsune hanyou. Part of that is that your chakra has a demonic nature. You don't have more of it, but it is more potent and powerful than normal human chakra."

"And what exactly are some of the other perks of our ever exclusive club."

"Well, besides the obvious extra appendages. There's the added chakra which we have already gone over, the enhanced senses, the demonic jutsu, the fact that I can roam in the outside world, the increased life span, and other things I will explain to you later."

"Simple enough, but I need to know," he got up to stand in front of his mirror, "how can I hide my tails and ears?"

"Oh that? Only kitsune eyes can see them. No human would have been able to see them anyway, not unless you explicitly want someone to see."

"Oh okay. You could have told me that anytime you wanted to, couldn't you?" The crimson clad man merely nodded. "Why did you let me go through all of that, when you could have just told me?"

"I get bored," was his simple reply.

"Of course," he said as his left eye refused to stop twitching.

"Don't worry; you'll understand when that kitsune instinct starts kicking in. Pulling pranks is in our nature."

His eye started to twitch even faster, "Well, what's in the past is the past. There's no changing it."

"That's a very mature way to looks at it."

"Plus since you're sealed inside of me and know my every thought and are eons smarter than me, there is probably no way I could get you back."

"That is also true."

"So," he said slowly, "is there anything else I should know?"

"Nope, that just about does it."

"Okay," he said while taking deep breaths, "I need to get some control over my insane amount of chakra, so I will be in the dojo, training."

Luckily for him, his mom still doing her paperwork at the Hokage tower, so he didn't have to sneak to the dojo or anything. As he kept walking, he took note of how all of the usually dimly lit areas looked as if they were as bright as day. But he just figured that they might have put in better lights while he was in the house.

He quickly made it down to the training dojo and opened the doors. He went to flip on the light switch out of habit, but he found that the room was already lit up. When he went to observe the light switch, he found that it was in the 'off' position. He just shrugged it off as a lighting malfunction.

He looked around until he found what he was searching for. What he was looking for was a specific section of wall. It was set up for chakra control training in that the higher you go up the wall, the more control you would need to stay on. At the bottom, it would be as difficult as running up a regular tree. But as you travel higher, there is a layer of chakra repulsive steel that gets thicker as you go up. In order to go to the top requires precise control and if so much as 0.005 microns of chakra touches the steel back, you would be thrown into the opposite wall, hard. As the Naruto shaped dents in the wall were testament to.

He took a deep breath and took the first step. Luckily, the easiest level was still within his grasp. He could still walk up and down walls. He took one step up and to the thinnest setting of the repulsive steel backing, and me manage to no be thrown across the room. Too bad for him, the third step was not the charm as he made impact with the wall. He groaned, got up, tried again, and got half an inch higher. He only had twenty more feet to go. At this rate, he would be hitting that wall 479 more times.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the house

The Kyuubi was just exploring the large house as he walked down the dark hallways. He had seen the entire house from Naruto's eyes but it is completely different to see something from four feet high and it see it from six feet. That was when he found his way to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and almost fainted at the frozen spread. "Well, I haven't eaten in five years so; I guess I do deserve a little snack."

Five minutes later

The fridge was actually sparkling clean. As for the Kyuubi, he was enjoying a sandwich that defied gravity in merely standing up. At some point in this sandwich, an entire turkey disappeared within its size. That and a bowl of macaroni, mashed potatoes, french-fries, ham, turkey, three gallons of lemon juice, and a sheep brain all in between two slices of bread, that and so much, much more. What was even weirder was that he finished this ten-foot monster in three bites.

He sat contently at the table as he patted his full belly. "That was the best sandwich ever." He was so happy, that was until he was disrupted by someone ringing the doorbell. He gave a heavy sigh and got up to go to the door. When he made it to the door, he was surprised to find that the person behind the door was two people. Standing eye to eye with him was Hyuuga Hiashi and just to his knees was one Hyuuga Hinata. Luck for the Kyuubi, Hiashi just assumed that he was a new servant.

And of course, Hiashi spoke to the king of demons with that, oh so detestable, Hyuuga superiority complex tone. "I am here to see Naruto since he wasn't at the hospital. Bring him to me."

The only reason that the fox didn't end him right there was because he was still in such a good mood. He really didn't want to lose his happy as he stared at the ceiling in bliss. He lazily lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. Before the head Hyuuga could even begin to wander what he was doing, a very surprised Naruto suddenly made an unexpected appearance. Lucky for him, his ninja training kicked in and allowed him to land on his feet.

As for the now annoyed Naruto, he looked up and saw the cause of his sudden displacement. Annoyance gave way to curiosity. "Hello Hyuuga-sama," he said, paying the proper respects.

"Hello Naruto-san," replied Hiashi to the child that even he found extraordinary.

"Why are you here?"

"We are here to see you," responded the pale-eyed man.

"And why is that?" inquired the masked boy.

"We are here to ask you, who it was that saved you and my daughter," he stated with no hint that he was asking a question, "My daughter didn't see much, but she did manage to get a peek outside the sack when she was dropped."

"How do you know that it wasn't my mother?"

"She was with me that entire day while we were talking to the man that kidnapped you. He came here under the guise of a legal representative of Cloud for the treaty signing," he said, "and you must have put up quite a fight based on the damage to my garden."

"I apologies about the damages," replied Naruto with a polite bow.

"No matter, they can be replaced, my daughter can not. Yet, I do need to know who the one that saved you two was."

"Maybe, I can't to tell you," responded the blond.

"Maybe, you don't have a choice," rebutted the Hyuuga.

"Maybe, he doesn't want to be known."

"Do you know that for sure?" asked the head sternly.

Naruto returned the hard glare, "Yes, yes I do."

Hiashi found no lie in what he was saying and took it for truth, "Come on Hinata, we are leaving. There is nothing else for us to learn here." He left through the door and she followed closely behind him.

As soon as they were through the portal, the Kyuubi turned to Naruto. "Wow, that was tense, but I have to admit, you handled it very well."

Naruto turned to watch the Hyuuga pair leave, "Thanks, but I must give the credit to luck." He started for the open door and grabbed the knob, "They underestimated me," he explained as the door shut tight.

What he didn't know was that his words had carried all the way to the Hyuuga girl's ears. At first, she didn't make anything of them, but then she dwelled on the words, "They underestimated me." Her thoughts floated to the past.

Flashback

_He walked over to the group of kids. Just when a punch was about to connect to one of the girls, he grabbed the fist about an inch in front of her face. "You shouldn't be fighting in the park," he said in a taunting manner to the two bullies._

_The bully looked down at who caught his punch and laughed, "Well than what are you going to do about it short stuff."_

_Naruto just glared at the boy who made fun of his height. He walked over to a tree, and drilled a hole strait threw it with a Rasengan. He shot the boy a hard glare before saying, "I'm sorry, you underestimated me. Do you want to try again?" he said as he focused all his killing intent on the bullies. The two bullies literally crapped in their pants and quickly made their retreat, very awkwardly. Before he could even turn around, both girls hugged him from behind. When he finally managed to slip out of their death grip, he walked over to the two unconscious boys. He easily healed their wounds and they woke up seconds later. He faced the entire group and did Kakashi's patented eye-smile. Before the group could even thank him, he simply faded from existence before their eyes._

"_Where did he go?" asked the girl with platinum blond hair._

"_I don't know, but I think that he is stronger than he looks," said the boy with a hairstyle that looked like someone just stopped halfway through._

"_And he looks pretty strong to begin with," said the biggest member of the group._

"_He could have al least given us a name," yelled the impotent pink head._

"_E-even if he left no n-name, we will a-always r-remember him," added the quiet, pale-eyed girl._

_The entire group of them just looked at each other and nodded. They decided at that moment that one day, they would all find out who was the mysterious person that saved them._

Flashback

_The villain that kidnapped him looked back, "Oh, I see that you have woken up. You must be exceptionally powerful; no one that I've used this on yet has ever woken up while still inside of it," he said as he set the bag holding the girl down._

_Naruto didn't waste the oxygen to respond and simply glared at him. He just shoved his new clawed hands into the wall of electric chakra and pierced it easily. He quickly ripped that bubble a new one and shoved his body threw the hole while sustaining mild electrical damage. As soon as he was completely out of the prison, he took deep gasping breaths and glared at the man again. "I told you that there was no way that you would be able to get away."_

"_Oh spare me the lecture; you can't do anything after being in my prison for that long."_

_Naruto grasped the sheathed sword at his right hip. "You really think that, don't you?" he said as his form vanished in a blur of speed. Before the cloud ninja could even blink, Naruto was behind him, back to back with his sword half sheathed._

_The cloud ninja took in a shaky breath before gasping for air. "How…how did you do that?" he whispered with a shutter._

_Naruto turned to stare at him with only with his eyes giving an uncaring aura, "You underestimated me." He then fully sheathed his sword with a "chink." As the sound radiated threw the air, the cloud ninja exploded in a fountain of his own blood._

End Flashbacks

She paused mid-step and turned on her heels to face the house again. _So then, he was the person that saved me both times. _She wanted to go back to the house and get answers, but she knew that he didn't want anyone to know and she would respect her savior's wishes. She turned and caught up with her father before taking one last look at the house. _Until next time, masked boy._

That is the end of chapter two. I hope that you enjoyed it and know that the next chapter will begin where the anime begins. But there are going to be some major differences if I have any say in it. And as the writer, I get say in pretty much everything. HA. I know that a few things went through pretty quickly and without much detail but I just wanted to introduce the main characters and get to the actual plot. If you don't know, I am getting a lot of the attacks from Bleach, I may even brink in some characters.

Good day and **REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW.**


	3. The Genin Exams

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way. If I did, Sakura would be less useless.

"Talking,"

_Thinking_

**Demonic telepathic connection**

Random question of the chapter: What sound do kangaroos make? Answer: I don't even know if they make a sound.

It took me forever to decide when to start the plot but I eventually decided on starting from the day for the graduation exam.

Years have passed as nothing worth mention occurs. Naruto has finally gotten control of his demonic powers. He slowly regained full control of his chakra and could now use his chakra strings with astonishing accuracy. And with control of his chakra, came full control over his tails. I could do wondrous and frightening things with his tails. Moreover, the outfit that he had gotten from his mindscape was now what he wore everyday. The great thing was that not only could he get more from his mindscape, but it was self repairing. It made excellent ninja wear because it was lightweight but still acted as armor. It was even strong enough to deflect kunai and shuriken. As his clothes took an upgrade, so did his library of jutsu. Even though Jiraiya was curious about his sudden skyrocket in chakra, he eventually accepted it and decided that Naruto was now ready for A-rank jutsu. Supplement that with the demonic jutsu that he would learn from the Kyuubi from time to time and he had an impressive amount of jutsu under his belt. And the increased senses came in handy more often than you would think.

As for Naruto now, he was currently waiting for his name to be called for the graduation exam. Even though it was taking forever, he could be happy that his name wasn't Zangami Zamtsui. That kid was going to be here forever. He waited for a bit longer and his name was finally called up to go take the exam.

He walked to the front of the classroom to take his test in front of everyone who already passed or failed and those yet to take the test. Apparently, they did this to make sure that students could perform in the high pressure situations that they might be placed into while on missions.

"Okay Naruto," started Iruka, "Your first test is to transform."

Seeing as he was the trickster that he was, he decided to do something a little extra. Without any warning or hand signs, he was enshrouded in smoke. Out from the white cloud stepped a small white dog. One that looked identical to the one that was on one of his classmate's, named Kiba, head. The imitation canine immediately started barking and grunting to the dog on Kiba's head. The white dog also started emanating punctuated barking sounds in response. Everyone in the class witnessed the conversation between the two clones. That, and they witnessed the phrases that ranged from, "Hey, what is that suppose to mean," to, "You weren't suppose to tell him that!" that the Inuzuka boy would interject at points. After a little more than thirty seconds of this, Naruto suddenly deactivated the henge no jutsu.

Naruto emerged from the smoke, laughing like a madman. "Wow," he said as he produced a bone the length of his arm from, none of them knew where, and tossed to the puppy; that gleefully proceeded to catch and chew on it for the rest of class. "Oh man, that is blackmail for life." At this point, most of the student body was not happy about not being able to speak canine. "Don't worry; I won't tell anybody. But man, you got to do something about that," he managed to get out between fits of laughter. Meanwhile, Kiba's face was getting redder and redder.

"Alright class," yelled Iruka in an attempt to get his class under control, "Calm down. Naruto you will do no more hi-jinks or pranks. Got it?"

Naruto consented to the demands, "Got it." And so, for the rest of the class, he was a "good boy" and didn't do anything out of the ordinary. In the end, he ended up tying with Sasuke with a perfect score. Thus, for the first time in academy history, two people won the _Rookie of the Year _award. Naruto didn't really care and as for Sasuke, he had accepted Naruto as an equal a while ago. And so, the test ended with everyone passing even if just barely. It was a good day to be a ninja.

The next day

Naruto was in the classroom with about 27 other students. They were here to be put into teams and to meet their new teammates. But more importantly, they were put here to wait while the jonin and Hokage had a meeting to decide which jonin got which students.

Within the Hokage tower

Most of the jonin had already selected their students, but there were only three jonin left that were still arguing about their students. The masked shinobi with the lopsided silver hair, the chain-smoking son of the third, and the red-eyes genjutsu mistress were currently arguing about their order of students.

"Kakashi, you can't have both of the Rookie of the Year winners and the highest scoring girl."

"The thing is that I must have Sasuke as I am the best one that is left to teach him how to use his Sharingan when he releases it."

"That is true," Tsunade interjected, "He is the best qualified to teach the Uchiha boy. It is not up to question that Sasuke goes to Kakashi."

"Well then, one of us should be able to get the other boy to keep the teams even," added the young woman.

"I am sorry but there are extenuating circumstances to Naruto, which I can not reveal to you, that Kakashi already knows," explained the old woman. Both she and Kakashi knew exactly why Naruto couldn't go to anyone but to a close family friend. She still remembered how surprised she was.

Flashback

Tsunade had been able to leave work early after bribing her assistant to finish her days work for a free week at the hot tubs. It was a hard bargain but in the end, it was completely worth it. Especially since she had put off doing her paperwork and Shizune was currently doing about three weeks worth of paperwork. It was a hard bargain indeed. She reveled in her small victory as she approached her home sweet home.

She entered her home as if it was any other day. She was headed for her room to indulge herself in her secret cache of quality sake. She had just passed the house dojo when she heard several noises. With her curiosity peaked, she walked silently up to the door and listened for any other noises.

"Be careful, if my mom knows that you are here, she will end me," she heard the voice of her soon-to-be-grounded son. She then heard some whisperings that she couldn't make out. It seemed the person that he was with spoke more quietly then himself. They continued the conversation, "What? You know that my mother is far too smart for something like that." A grin flashed on her face before retreating back to the serious mission look.

This time, her hearing adjusted so that she could make out the second voice also, "Okay, you can now make the first one come pretty fast and it only took you a few tries. And you also learned how to make two of them come at the same time. Now, we are going to learn on how to use your, other appendage, to make three of them come at the same time. And when you are as good as me, you will be able to make eleven completely different ones come in perfect harmony."

"But won't that be kind of unfair?"

"Hey all is fair in love and war."

At this point, she had heard enough to come up to her own conclusions. Conclusions that were so far off, that it was clinically insane. She threw the doors open so hard that they nearly flew off the hinges. The first thing that she noticed was that her son was holding two different and complete rasengans in his hands. That managed to fill in a few holes about the conversation, but she still needed to know who this strange man in red that was with Naruto was. "Who are you?" she asked indicating the crimson man.

"I am the one who has been teaching Naruto all of those new jutsu and I am the one who gave him the new clothes. I found the orange ones to be an eyesore," he said, going off on a tangent.

"Hey, you never said that before," said the offended boy, "although it does explain a lot."

"I was asking for more of a name, and if possible, a title" responded Tsunade.

"I guess Reiku is as good a name as any other. As for my title, I am the Kyuubi no kitsune."

Being the sensible woman that she was, she did not believe him, "Don't mess with me. Tell me who you are."

Naruto was completely shocked that he just gave up who he was like that. Then he figure that his mom would find out and piece things together eventually. _I guess this will make things easier in the future._ He took a deep breath to prepare for what was to come. "Mom, he is telling the truth," said her little boy as nine waving tails faded into existence behind him, "see?" He awaited her reaction.

"Oh, okay. Now everything make sense," she said unnervingly calm.

"Why are you taking this so well?" asked the young boy.

"Oh, that's because all of this is just a dream. In a few minutes, I am going to wake up at my desk, facing a mountain of paperwork."

"Um, that isn't true. Everything that happened here is real," added the Kyuubi.

"Oh yeah?" she questioned, "If this was all real, then I would feel this," she nearly yelled as he shoved a kunai deep into her thigh. Both males flinched at the sudden act. Luckily for both of the super hearing kitsune, her years of ninja experience didn't allow her to scream, but you could tell she wanted to. "Okay, this is real. I will be back in thirty minutes," she said as she limped off.

Kyuubi turned right to Naruto, "You tell your mom that you're a half-demon and she ended up stabbing herself and walked away."

"Could have been worse, I'm kind of surprised that she didn't scream."

"WHAT THE HELL. HOW DID THIS FUCKING HAPPEN?!"

"There it is," said the young boy with an awkward laugh and a heavy sigh.

End Flashback

Everyone from the older generation already knew about the Kyuubi being inside of him, but him being her son kept contempt for him at a minimum. She shuttered to think of the chaos that would ensue if they knew that the Kyuubi could just walk around whenever he wanted. She just barely got passed it from Naruto's recommendation that he wasn't evil. In fact, the only people she could trust with this were Kakashi, seeing as he took a shine to Naruto, and Jiraiya, though it took some time seeing as he did technically kill his last apprentice. Even after all that, seeing the king of demons walking around the house and eating all of their food became as normal as dust, with time.

And so, back to the meeting with the jonin to decide who gets which genin in their teams. Currently, Kakashi was the one to receive both of the best male students of the year, which they usually wouldn't do except for the extenuating circumstances. And right now, he wouldn't be able to have the highest scoring girl also because it would be very unfair.

Tsunade thought about it for a few seconds, "Okay, It is true that Kakashi can't have both Naruto, Sasuke, and the highest scoring girl which this year is," she took as peak at her clipboard, "Haruno Sakura. But it is also true that there can not be three boys on a team and all the other teams have been finalized. So the only swapping places left are for Yamanaka Ino or Hyuuga Hinata."

Kakashi wasn't too broken up about not having Sakura. He knew Haruno girls; they always turn out exactly like their mothers. And he knew from experience that her mother was a little bit of a gold digger. He would bet his entire Icha Icha collection that she would use most of her time for training, trying to get close to Sasuke or Naruto. And the only girl that was even more obsessive about those two was Ino. Plus, he doubted that Asuma would dare give up a chance with another Ino-Shika-Cho dream team.

It was almost inevitable, Sakura got traded for Hinata. Beside, the genjutsu mistress found that the pink haired girl had a high aptitude for genjutsu, and Hinata could handle herself since Hizashi always seemed to keep Hiashi balanced. Not to mention that her cousin, Neji, had been helping her with her self esteem ever since she was almost kidnapped. Sign a few pieces of paperwork and everything is done and finalized.

And imagine that all of this wouldn't be possible if Naruto hadn't been to one to save her and not take credit because they tried to have the person who saved her killed. It was really lucky for him that he beat the sense right _out_ of the man; he just kept babbling about demonic children and such. Yet another secret that was only among friends.

As for with the young students

Everyone else had already been picked up by their sensei except for nine particular students that were all sitting in the back. "So, you guys. Why do you think that we are all here?" asked the blond boy, trying to start up a conversation.

"The only reason for us to still be here is because our future jonin advisors are having a dispute about who we will go to," said their resident genius.

"Well, I can make a few good guesses on who would go where. I know that I am going to the jonin Hatake Kakashi," added the raven haired boy, "he is technically the best person left to teach me how to use and activate my Sharingan."

"And I will be going to Kakashi because of… let's just call them extenuating circumstances."

"Also, because there can't be three boys on a team, that means that our third teammate will either be Sakura, Hinata, or Ino," added the Uchiha.

This particular piece of information caught the attention of everyone there, especially the girls. "So then, I have a chance to be with both of you?" asked the quickly excited Sakura.

"No," replied Sasuke. Poor Sakura's hopes were dashed and crushed before her eyes, "because you are technically the highest scoring girl, you wouldn't be put on a team with both highest scoring boys." Her spirit took a real blow. _I tried so hard just to impress them and the fact that I tried so hard is what essentially kept me from being on their team. Life is so unfair._

"The interesting thing is that if I had the worst grades in the class, then we would most likely end up being on the same team because they would try to balance the teams."

"So then, who gets on your team is a tossup between me and Hinata?" asked an ecstatic Ino.

"Well, not really. I have been doing some snooping around the Hokage archives and I found some pretty interesting information one day. I don't have all the facts, but I'm sure that Shikamaru does," responded the blond boy, earning him the genius's contempt.

_What a drag. If I don't tell her now, she will just keep annoying me about it until I finally give in. _The young boy sighed, "Okay, I am only saying this once. The reason that you are most likely going to be paired up with me and Choji is because of our fathers. In their day, our fathers made up the original Ino-Shika-Cho group that was made for the detaining of powerful enemies. Because the team worked so well, the Nara, Akamichi, and Yamanaka clans have had a strong treaty that involves there being an Ino-Shika-Cho team every generation. Because we are the sons/daughter our respective clan heads, we are filling that place and are to live up the reputations of our fathers until the next generation."

"Wow, no wonder he told us he would only say it once," uttered the future Sharingan user.

"Yeah, but doesn't it kind of ruin the surprise factor?" asked Choji in between bites.

The previously crushed Sakura perked up quickly, "Yeah, you do owe us something for letting out the secret," accused the pink head, "And your punishment shall be that you have to show us what is beneath your mask."

"Do you want to see what is under my mask?" everyone around nodded. Even Shino managed to raise an eyebrow, "Do you really want to know what is under my mask?" they all drew closer. "What is under…" he raised one finger as they held their breath, "my mask…" he gripped the top of the mask with the finger and prepared to pull it down, while Sasuke silently snickered to himself, "is…" he snapped his hand down only to reveal, "Another mask. How awesome is that." Almost everyone in the room did the classic face plant while Sasuke and Naruto were laughing their butts off. Even Shino had a respectable sweat drop.

After everyone recovered from the shock and Naruto and Sasuke managed to stop laughing, Naruto wiped away his tears of mirth as he said, "Oh man! That never gets old."

Luckily for our favorite blond, the jonin teachers walked in before they could kill him. Naruto and Sasuke went strait for Kakashi and Hinata just followed quietly behind them. "Oh, you already know that your mine. That saves us time. Naruto, you take Hinata and follow me." The scarecrow ninja put his hand on Sasuke and they disappeared in a cloud of smoke as Naruto grabbed Hinata's hand and they both disappeared in that blur of speed that he affectionately called his only original technique, the flash step.

Kakashi, with Sasuke in tow, appeared in a distant field in a cloud of smoke while Naruto, carrying Hinata, appeared seconds later. Both Sasuke and Hinata were hit with a surge of dizziness and easily ended up on their butts. "Yeah, that happened to be too my first time," said Naruto as happy memories returned, "Good times, good times."

Kakashi's face contoured in confusion, "What kind of good times could you have had? You're only twelve."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing something other than raining on my parade?

"Alright students, today, we will begin by getting to know each other. You will tell us your name, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and your dreams," he stated while giving Naruto a hard look.

"Why don't you go first so we can see what it's like?" responded the blond boy.

"Fine, my name is Hatake Kakashi. As for my hobbies, well, I have many hobbies. My likes and dislikes are…none of your business. And my dreams are… I would rather not tell you."

"Well that was helpful, he didn't tell us anything," complained the Uchiha boy.

"Believe me, you don't want to know. You will have nightmares for weeks," replied Naruto.

"Okay, funny guy, how about you go next?" commanded the jonin.

"Okay, my name is Sarutobi Uzumaki Naruto. My hobbies are eating ramen and training my chakra control in fun ways. My likes are training, ramen, and my friends and family. My dislikes are people who only like me because of who my mother is and nothing else, that's why I train so hard. My dream is to be Hokage one day.

"Okay, nothing too unusual. Well, you two are the only ones left, so… ladies first."

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. My hobbies are flower pressing and making medical salves. My likes are cinnamon buns and my dislikes are people who think you're weak because you don't like hurting others. My dream is to be good clan leader and abolish that caged-bird cured seal from my clan."

Naruto recognized the name. _I know about that seal. My mother tried to get the clan to stop using that seal on their branch members but the clan elders kept saying that the Hokage has authority over the civilians and the ninja, but their clan members didn't fall under those categories on a technicality. _He let out a small shutter. _She ranted on about that for weeks and nearly killed me in training._

"Interesting, I guess that means you're next."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. My hobbies are training and running away from rabid fan girls. As for my likes, I don't like anything particularly well, except for a few people, and I hate a lot of things. My dream, no, my ambition is to kill a certain someone."

Both Naruto and Kakashi let out a mental sigh. Kakashi had actually been there to see the aftermath of that fateful day and Naruto had not only read about it when he poked around in the Hokage archives, he had spoken to Sasuke about making sure that this didn't evolve into an obsession. Although what he found odd was that when he did look it up in the archives, the event had been completely black marked with the only legible words being "The snake has eyes." He never even had a clue what that was supposed to mean, and he couldn't ask his mother because he isn't suppose to be in the archives in the first place.

"Seeing as we all now know each other a little better, we can move on to the next piece of business. Now that you have all passed the genin test, it is time for your second test to begin."

"What? What do you mean by second test?" asked the Uchiha boy.

"He means the test to evaluate our ability to work together as a team. A trait required of all new genin teams," explained the blond.

"He's right, but what he forgot to add was that there is a 66 chance of you failing and being sent back to the academy for another year. We will continue this tomorrow at training field seven at 6 o'clock sharp," he finished as he vanished into smoke with a single hand sign. From the smoke emanated his voice, "Oh and don't eat anything or…you'll puke." With that said, the smoke drifted away and he was gone.

Naruto looked at his new teammates, "Okay, I didn't really expect him to leave this early; tomorrow's test is going to be a teamwork exercise so… how about we learn about each other better over some ramen?" asked the Uzumaki boy.

"I have to go do some training," responded the Uchiha boy.

"Why don't we train, and then eat?" suggested the Hyuuga girl.

Both boys accepted with a simple shrug and all three started off for the training fields. It was about a ten minute walk so Naruto started the conversation again, "What kind of jutsu do you guys know?"

"My best ones are my fire jutsu," answered Sasuke.

"Cool, my favorite type of jutsu is my wind jutsu. You know, if we were to combine our attacks, my wind jutsu would give your fire jutsu a huge boost."

It caught his attention when he heard that his fire jutsu could be enhanced, "Okay, I'm interested."

"Cool, we will try it out when we get to the grounds. Hey Hinata, what kind of jutsu do you know?"

She hesitated before finally answering, "I don't really know any jutsu."

"That's okay, I know a few that you can probably pick up pretty quickly," he cheerfully responded.

"**Kit. You can teach her water jutsu."**

_Why do you want me to teach her water type jutsu?_

"**Just do it."**

Naruto simply gave a mental shrug and turned towards her, "When we get to the training grounds, I'll teach you a few water jutsu."

"Why water jutsu?" asked Hinata.

_Reiku, why water jutsu?_

"**Say because she probably has an affinity for water like you do to wind."**

"Oh, I say water jutsu because you probably have an affinity for water jutsu just like I have one for wind jutsu."

Hinata got a suspicious look as she sensed that something was off, "And how would you know that my element is water and not fire or wind."

"Um, hey look, there's the training grounds, I'll race you Sasuke," he said as he took off at full speed.

She quickly chased after him, "Wait. You never answered my question."

"If you want an answer, you'll have to catch me first."

With all suspicions confirmed, the chase began. It started out simple at first, running across the field of grass, maybe jumping into a tree here or there. Then Naruto decided the move things up a few notches. There were times when he would simply vanish from her sight and she had to use her Byakuugan to find him again, he would run up and down the trunks of trees and sprint across lake surfaces. He would leap far into the air and just when she thinks that she got him, he suddenly changes direction in mid-air, one time she ended up swimming in the lake because of that trick. She had even convinced Sasuke to come and help her, only for him to fall for all the same tricks as she did. An hour later, both of them were wet, cold, hungry, tired, and very, _very_ annoyed.

Naruto walked up to the two panting ninja, "Okay guys, now that we're done with the warm up, we can get to the real training."

Both ninja stared at the blond. _That was a warm up? What does he do for serious training?_

Naruto helped his teammates up and gave them some of his own special food pills to refill their energy, "Tomorrow, Kakashi-sensei is going to have a surprise waiting for him."

Well, that was the end of chapter 3. I hope that you didn't hate it too much. And again, **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	4. On the Way to Wave

Hey ya'll. It has been practically a year. Here is chapter four of TRTD. Also thank you for the reviews, everyone's good reviews and intelligent, polite criticism reviews spur me on to make another chapter.

IcecreamMakingGuy: I honestly didn't know what Tsunade's last name was or if they even gave her a last name so I just went with Sarutobi because I new that she was related or possibly engaged/married to other kages; I figured it wasn't too much of a stretch.

Also, sorry it took me so long to post this one, a severe case of writer's block with the fight. After that disclaimer, here's another: I don't own Naruto or any other anime. If I did, Orochimaru would be wearing a French sailor outfit. Also, I know that it seems that a lot of the story passes in one chapter but I'm not adding any fluff to make them last longer until my own original plot. The rest of the anime series might only last about 8 more chapters, but I might become inspired. Sorry about errors but Word isn't infallible.

The First Kitsukage : I am sorry but I didn't know about that since I just recently discovered online anime and manga (part of the reason for the long break) It's a small plot hole. Thank you for pointing this out and please report them to me. If I can fix them, I will. If I can't, well, I will tell you. I will keep the name for now though.

OnGuard: You can at least try to be respectful. It isn't like you are paying for this story. Yes I realize _now _that small plot hole and I will try my best to patch it up this chapter. As for the fight, the guy is presumed an ANBU level ninja, it is plausible that he could recover and launch another attack.

SordweilderSurvivor: After the main anime plot, maybe.

Dragon Man 180: I realize that it was strange that there wasn't any security around Naruto when he was in the hospital but I needed him to get out of there to continue the plot. I will think of some explanation.

Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed me and told me about Naruto being a bit too powerful and believe me, it annoys me when there is a Naruto who can take on an army of ANBU and not get a scratch (unless he is just plain badass) so the villains, even the less significant ones, will also get a power boost to make the fight more interesting. Also, the fact that I never bothered to try to use the Japanese jutsu names doesn't limit me to the attacks used in the anime.

Also (last time, I promise) I don't specifically know when they fought Zabuza so I might be off a bit.

Again, if anyone wants the 30 days to kill made by the original account holder, it is up for grabs by anyone; just mention this account at least once.

And finally, a joke:

Rower: I like a-rowing. (Singing _terribly_ off key)

Naruto: Oh my goodness will you shut up!

Rower: NO. I only get about 25 seconds in this series and I can spend it as I like. A rowing a rowing it's a fun to be a rowing (Continues singing that is a crime against humanity)

Kakashi: Does anyone object to me throwing this guy off the boat?

All: NO

Rower: Hey, what are you doing…hey, what NOOOOOOO. (SPLASH)

On with the story

The next day

Beep, Beep, Click. That would be Kakashi hitting the snooze button on his alarm for the tenth, maybe the eleventh, time. Kakashi got up just enough to look at the red screen. _I said to be there at 6:00 and it is 7:40 now. I got twenty more minutes. _After that short thought, he promptly went back to sleep.

As for with his students, earlier that morning

Hinata, Naruto and Sasuke had arrived at 6:00 on the dot or earlier. Naruto turned to his two partners in crime, "Sasuke, do you have the materials?" He answered with a simple nod. "Hinata, do you have the plans?" She answered in the same fashion. "Okay good, and I have the stuff for the wait after and our little surprise, now let's get started. We only have about 2 hours to get everything ready and rest."

"Hai," responded the two others.

Back with Kakashi

Kakashi was walked down the path to the park while reading his book. It was almost amazing how he would walk down the path and not bump into any of the people or the numerous trees. At one occasion, he even somersaulted over a small, stray dog. He arrived at the sight of the memorial stone and for the first time that day, put down his book and nearly face-planted. Right in front of him were his students, all asleep in large sleeping bags and surrounded by juice boxes and fruit snacks. Although he was annoyed, he wasn't at all surprised seeing how Naruto knows about his habit of being late to everything.

He walked over to the sleeping Naruto and lightly kicked him awake, "Naruto, I am just going to assume that this is your doing so from now on, you can't use any of your jutsu that you learned from Reiku (that's the Kyuubi's name incase you forgot) and you can not use any jutsu higher than B-rank. Plus, you can't use you sword or any medical ninjutsu or your flashstep or your super strength during this test"

"Yeah, I kind of thought that might happen," said the defeated Naruto, "but that doesn't mean that I will be a pushover either. Besides, you wouldn't be doing this just to make sure you don't take serious injury from me, or are you?"

"We'll see about that, now go and wake up your friends."

Naruto stomped off mumbling something about silver haired perverts with no life. He walked over to the sleeping girl and kneeled next to her. "Hinata, Hinata wake up," he said as he gently shook her awake.

Hinata open her eyes to find Naruto leaning over her a bit. She went lobster red and just barely stuttered out a, "H-h-hi Naruto-kun." Some habits never die. She saw Naruto offer his hand to help her up and she took it with relish. Luckily, Sasuke had awoken on his own seconds earlier and the test could begin. After one explanation of the rules, you can just add in the stuff from the anime, the test began with all three genin hopefuls disappearing into the trees.

"_Well, they all got off to a good start. None of them were stupid enough to stay back and challenge me directly, like they would have a snowball's chance in hell against me alone."_

With Tsunade and Hiashi

Hiashi had just entered Tsunade's office when he sits down in front of her desk.

"Thank you for coming so soon Hiashi-dono," Tsunade said respectfully, "It has come to question whether or not the Hyuuga mansion is secure."

"It is not a lack of security in our home, the man wore a concealing sutra that hid his presence from the Byakuugan. The offending sutra was burned immediately as it posed a threat to out clan," he stated in a business manner, "When the guards heard the commotion, they simply assumed that he was there training while you were in the meeting with me, he has been known to go to extremes in his training."

Tsunade nodded as she that it true, sometimes the boy would cause massive damage to a training area in his quest to become stronger. Then she was interrupted from her musings, "Hokage-sama, how was it that he wasn't at the Hospital when I went to find him?"

Not it was her turn to explain, "Naruto knows a decent amount of medical techniques and has fair medical knowledge. I trust him to know when he has reached his limit. I always have guards on him when he in unconscious, even in the house, but I trust him to leave whenever he deems himself fit."

Hiashi thought about her words. I wasn't good for a young ninja to be looked over all the time; it was suffocating and can hinder their progress as they develop into their own person. He learned this from being a parent as well as a ninja clan head. He got up and left, he had gotten all the answers that he needed for now, even if the person who saved his daughter was still a mystery, he knew the Hokage wouldn't tell him anything more now than she did the other times he asked. He simply learned to live with the fact that he would be eternally grateful to someone he will never know.

Back with Team 7

Three barrages of kunai and shuriken flew at Kakashi from three directions. He thought that this was simple enough to dodge with a simple jump into the air. That turned out to be a fatal mistake as all of the projectiles turned path and followed him into the air. Kakashi may have been caught already as he cannot maneuver out of the way in mid air. Kakashi tried his best to dodge but ended up taking three to the right shoulder and fell to the ground in a heap, before revealing that he was only a log.

Naruto knew that now he mostly likely knew where all of them were, so he decided to attack before Kakashi could counterattack. Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata all sprang out of one bush and rushed Kakashi. Kakashi dodged the first punch from Naruto and had to duck and sidestep to dodge a strike from Hinata and a ferocious roundhouse kick from Sasuke.

Sasuke leaped to attempt a mid-air punch to the face that Kakashi caught in his hand. He followed with another punch that now occupied Kakashi's second hand. The raven hair boy twisted his body to try to kick him in the head but Kakashi threw him away before he could contact. Naruto came in with a sharp punch to his torso while Hinata attempted to sweep his feet. Sadly, Kakashi simply dodged this by jumping above the genin.

"Sasuke NOW!" yelled Naruto as he began his own set of hand seals. Sasuke received the message and began a set too.

Kakashi immediately recognized the jutsu Sasuke was preparing and almost laughed. _There is not way that a genin could possibly use a fire jutsu like that, it take too much chakra. _He was just about to reach the apex of his flight when he noticed that Sasuke had successfully launched the _Grand Fire Ball no jutsu. _He couldn't dodge an attack that large in mid-air, but he was a jonin for a reason, he was already started on a jutsu that could cancel out Sasuke's. That was until he heard Naruto's voice ring out, "_Grand Air bullet" _He turned to so Naruto's attack on a collision course with Sasuke's attach right where he would be in mere seconds. _This is going to hurt._

The explosion was fiery and extremely large. After that attack, there was a fifty feet (about 15 meters) scorch mark left on the ground. The only reason that Konoha wasn't currently burning to the ground was because Hinata had doused the surrounding area in water while they were preparing that morning. Speaking of preparations, what was Naruto doing with that piece of ninja wire?

Kakashi soon found that out as about thirty explosive notes popped out of the ground. _They set a trap? _He thought, as these were his first students ever to actually set a trap for him. _Too bad it will be all for nothing. _He said as he began in sink underground.

Naruto only gave a small chuckle as he gripped a leaf on one of the trees. "I thought you might try that." He plucked the leaf and seconds later, the entire ground exploded into the air, taking Kakashi along with it. With that, Naruto plucked a second leaf and activated the second part of the trap. Every single one of the explosive notes on the ground exploded and covered Kakashi, along with the rest of the forest, in a pink slime.

Kakashi was not only annoyed by the color, but he was also finding it more difficult to move by the second. "What is this stuff?" he asked as he struggled to get the sticky slime.

"It an exotic type of trap that I found in one of mom's books. It is really difficult to make as it has over 150 ingredients and if you make one mistake, it will explode," Naruto said as he lifted his hair to show Kakashi the remnants of his failures. "But it is worth it, not only does it harden to become stronger than steel, it also absorbs chakra so it is almost impossible to get out of it. So…do we pass?"

"Well, seeing as I can't move and you did successful work together to trap me, I couldn't fail you guys even if I wanted to."

"So we pass?" asked the excited Hinata.

"Yeah, you pass."

"Awesome, come on guys, let's celebrate with some ramen. I know a little place that make the best that you will ever taste."

"Okay Naruto-kun."

"Whatever."

"Hey guys, are you just going to leave me here? How do I get out of this?"

"Oh yeah, there are only two things that can break that stuff. Urine and saliva, so…take your pick," he told the unfortunate man as he ran to catch up to his teammates and friends, "Oh and before you choose, know that one of the ingredients of that stuff is bat guano."

"Naruto, when I get out of this, you are dead," he said before he made his decision and wished to high heaven that he could plug his nose at the very least.

Time Skip

After several mind numbing D-rank missions that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot of anything. Naruto and his team were sitting in front of his mother and receiving their pay for capturing that damn cat, yet again when he says, "Tsunade-sama," he can't call here mom in public, "I believe that we are ready for a C rank mission."

"We've completed our quota for D-rank missions and working together, we managed to incapacitate Kakashi on our first day, and we are well qualified," answered the formal speaking son.

"Hmm, what you say is true," she said, thinking about it for a while, "Fine, you will receive your first C-rank mission today," she then turned to the door, "Okay, you can come in now." Out walked the old, drunk bridge builder.

(Not part of the story)

"Wait, what the crap, do you just stand in there until someone comes in wanting a job?" asked Naruto.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"How long have you been waiting in there?" Hinata asked.

"Five freaking days, I saw D-ranks, B-ranks, even a few A-ranks pass through but there wasn't one single C-rank mission for nearly a week."

"What's in there anyway?" asked Sasuke.

"An open bar."

(Back to the plot)

"Hic, what are you doing sending me along with a bunch of children," protested the drunkard, "They all look weak, especially the short one."

"Listen old man, the last thing that you want to do is underestimate me or my teammates. And I'm not short!!!"

"Naruto, remember, he is the client," reminded his mother.

"It was just a friendly warning," he responded.

"Sure it was. Now get out of here, I still have a lot of paperwork to do."

Along the path to Wave

Team 7 and the old drunkard had left Konoha for the land of waves. Nothing remarkable had occurred until Naruto noticed a puddle when he knew that it hadn't rained in weeks. Naruto coiled one of his tails towards Kakashi and touched his head with it. _Kakashi-sensei, can you hear me?_

_Yeah, loud and clear; Naruto, what did I tell you about giving me some warning before you use this technique to speak to me. I nearly cut off your tail when it touched me._

_Well this is important, I noticed a puddle back there that shouldn't have been there and we are headed to a land with ninja who specialize in water techniques. See the coincidence._

_Yeah, I noticed that puddle too. Just be sure to stay on guard and…crap too late._

Two men materialized out of the small puddle and quickly rushed Kakashi. Before the jonin even moved, they had both wrapped their bladed chain around him and ripped him to bits. Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were going insane at the sight of their recently murdered teacher but they didn't have long to lament as the two mist ninja turned their attention to the children.

They both charged with the razor chain clinking as they neared the blond boy. Naruto deftly unsheathed his sword and chopped the chain in half with a brutal slash. The shorter of the two brothers, discouraged, discarded the chain and charged after the raven-haired boy as he assumed him to be easier prey. The taller brother however decided to hold onto his chain and use it as a weapon himself.

When the older released the chain from his gauntlet, it turned out that there was a hidden compartment that hid a spiked ball at his end of the chain. After a few defensive test swings, the mist ninja was in a ready position as he stared down young blond opponent. The mist shinobi swung the chain right as Naruto who put up his sword to block the spiked ball. However, the mist nin gave the chain more slack at the last second and managed to get his chain completely wrapped around Naruto sword.

"Kuso!" he cursed as his sword was roughly torn from his grasp. Reacting quickly, he grabbed some shuriken with both hands and flung them forward to the thieving ninja. The fact that he had his sword stolen from him was enough of an insult, but having his own sword used against him to block all of his shuriken was just not fair. The again, who said that a ninja fight was fair? Knowing full well that a Kiri nin would almost certainly be skilled with his sword, he knew that anymore projectiles would be slashed or dodged.

Sasuke was having trouble with the younger brother who was relentless with his slashing gauntlet attacks. Sasuke had managed to either block or dodge all of his attacks but every time that he did try to block his gauntlet with his kunai, his arm would turn numb from the sheer force of the attack. Sasuke dodged under another powerful attack and tried to swipe the enemy's legs with his kunai. The ninja effortlessly jumped over the attack and used gravity's momentum to make an even more powerful slash at Sasuke head. Sasuke barely rolled to the side and managed to launch a few kunai in the process and immediately started sealing. The younger brother started his own sealing also.

"_Phoenix Flower no Jutsu."_

"_Water Concealment no Jutsu."_

Sasuke launched as barrage of fireballs at the mist ninja. Unfortunately for Sasuke, the enemy ninja fell into a puddle of water, causing all of Sasuke's fireballs to fly harmlessly above him. His rose from his puddle with a superior look, that was until he saw Sasuke smirk and cross his arms, his fingers out as if he was controlling a puppet. The fireballs that the mist nin thought that he dodged before began to curve back around and encircle him. _"Ninja wire attached to shuriken hidden within the fireballs," _he yelled in his head as he was completely bound by the offending and searing hot metal wire and shuriken. Sasuke walked up and delivered as swift kick to the back of his head to knock him out.

The older of the two brothers was charging Naruto with his own sword no less. Naruto had a fearful look on his face as it looked like his own blade would cut him down. The blade neared his vulnerable head as the mist nin readied himself for the killing blow. Then Naruto smiled, and dark fire raced out of the black hilt of his sword. The flames of darkness engulfed the mist ninja who tried all that he could to extinguish them but they refused to leave him. Naruto finally decided that a light toasting would suffice and ended the ninja's suffering, alive, in pain, but alive.

Just as the last brother fell, Kakashi came walking out of the bushes while clapping his hands as if he was just treated to a show. Naruto and Sasuke were annoyed that they had to fight such opponents while Hinata simply seemed relieved to see that her sensei was still alive and well.

Naruto was the first to respond, "WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" he yelled in obvious agitation. Sasuke didn't say anything but that didn't mean that he wasn't giving the lazy ninja the dirtiest look he could muster.

"I wanted to see if you guys could handle yourselves in your own and get a new perspective of your abilities," he said cheerily.

"So you let three genin fight two B-rank missing-nin in order to see if we could actually do it?" said an angry Sasuke.

Both boys gave Kakashi one final glare before they continued down the path to water country, there was no more point in this conversation. There was however a something to gain from another, "Tazuna, why were you being pursued by the Demon Brothers of the Mist if this is only a C-rank mission?" interrogated the infamous Copy Ninja.

One heartfelt story later

They were walking closer to the rendezvous point for the pickup to Wave country when Hinata asked a question, "A-ano, Naruto-kun, but where d-d-did that black fire c-come from t-t-that attacked t-the other ninja?"

Naruto looked back actually surprised that someone had asked him that, "It is the special ability of my sword, and it is called Shadow of Fire. It isn't bright at all so its great for stealth but its also twice as hot as regular flames and they will keep burning until I will them to stop."

This intrigued both Sasuke and Hinata, "Where did it come from?" they both asked almost in unison. Of course, Kakashi already knew where his sword came from; he had known ever since he saw Reiku training Naruto with the katana in the Hokage dojo. It had a hilt that was black as night but had an intricate thin lining that looked like a fox head in orange. The guard was in the shape of a nine-point star while the blade had an elegant curve to it. The sheath that it rested in had a fox at the bottom with nine red tails twirling and intertwining up it.

Both Hinata and Sasuke stopped for a moment so that they could admire the blade and, more importantly, the boy that wielded it. As they watched his back grow smaller, they only had one thing on their minds. _"Naruto Uzumaki Sarutobi, who are you?"_

Well, I hope that I filled in all of the plot holes that I could. You have to tell me about them if you want them filled in later. Oh and on more tiny little itsy bitsy thing. **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW**


	5. Meet the Demon

Yo. Guess what, I finally have an internet connection. I got it somewhere at the end of fall break and I have been typing ever since. I would usually proofread but I am so excited to finally share my genius. (JK) *Doing a victory dance* So now, that means that I can submit so much more often than I could before, now I can finally post 2 chapters a year. (JK) Seriously, I think that I can get another one out somewhere during Winter break with finals and stuff coming up. After that I hope to be able to submit once ever 1-2 weeks, barring I get engrossed in a really good story. Oh, and I can't wait until after the Chunin exam saga because then I get to get into the real drama with my own original sagas. So prepare to be astounded by my genius. (again, JK) Also, I finally updated my profile page. Go check it out because it is funny.

As always, I do not own Naruto or any other anime, if I did, I would get rid of Zabuza's ridiculous pants.

Lastly, I realize the naming incongruity, how the hell was I to know her last name, but it is important to future plot so just go with it.

Lastly, really this time, Enjoy, because this is the longest fighting sequence I have eve written.

Well, here is a joke (Inspired by Masako X and Vegeta3986):

Azuma: Okay guys, let's head out.

Kiba: YAHOO! Our first C-rank mission!!!

Shino: Yay………wooh.

Azuma: Okay seriously, Kiba, you need some Ritalin. And Shino, you need some Prozac.

Sakura: What do I need?

Azuma: A smack across the face.

Sakura: You're mean.

Azuma: Yeah, well…you're useless.

Sakura: No, I'm not.

Azuma: Okay, let's make a deal. You can talk every time that you do something useful… Oops looks like you're a mute until Shippuuden.

Just a little fun at Sakura's expense, now on with the story, last time on TRTD

Both Hinata and Sasuke stopped for a moment so that they could admire the blade and, more importantly, the boy that wielded it. As they watched his back grow smaller, they only had one thing on their minds. _"Naruto Uzumaki Sarutobi, who are you?"_

O0o.o0O

Naruto and crew had finally made it to one of the islands that made up the wave country and were currently walking the path to Tazuna's home town when they the air suddenly became thicker. Team 7 could barely see their hands in front of their faces as the mist tried to emulate the cloak of night.

"This mist is thick," stated Hinata as she found the path very difficult to follow.

"Almost like pea soup," added Sasuke.

"More like chowder," corrected Naruto, even his enhanced seeing couldn't see further than 3 meters (≈10 ft).

Immediately, Naruto's heightened ears caught the sound of metal chopping though the air as Kakashi's experienced senses screamed danger. "Everybody down NOW!" both Naruto and Kakashi screamed in unison as everyone but Tazuna, who had to be dragged down by Hinata, dropped to the forest floor. The unnecessarily large sword soared over their heads and lodged itself into a tree, where it acted as a platform for the ninja who threw it, his tall and intimidating figure balancing on his sword.

Kakashi practically growled, "Mommochi Zabuza, the demon of the mist and master of the silent kill using the hidden mist no jutsu," said Kakashi as he slowly lifted his headband in preparation.

"Hatake Kakashi, the Copy Ninja and possessor of the Sharingan," came the demon of mist's reply, "I am feeling merciful today so why don't you hand over the old man and I'll let you guys go."

Kakashi responded by pulling out a kunai, "I'm sorry but that is not an option." Kakashi signaled to his team to form a defensive perimeter around Tazuna. They all moved with surprising speed in a triangle around their client, kunai brandished against any threat.

Zabuza gave a sadistic grin at their actions before the mist around suddenly rushed in, thickening once again. All of team 7 went on high alert as they searched frantically for the deadly ninja. Wordlessly, Hinata activated her Byakugan and scanned through the thick mist. She deftly turned around and aimed a juuken strike right where Tazuna's stomach would be. Both Naruto and Sasuke were shocked to see Zabuza materialize out of thick air and block the strike with the broad side of his sword.

Following up, Hinata threw several more strikes at Zabuza as he skillfully deflected or blocked the chakra filled strikes. Not to be outdone, Sasuke came in from above with a vicious punch aimed for his head only to be dodged as Zabuza back flipped, impacting one foot with the Hyuuga girl's chin and using the other to kick Sasuke into a tree. Naruto came in low with a chakra filled kick to catch Zabuza in mid-air. The self-proclaimed demon raised his arms to block, only to have them practically blown off from the Tsunade-like strength. All three genin watched in fascination or horror as Zabuza melted into a puddle of water.

Kakashi, becoming tired of the mist, formed the ram seal and let out a wave of chakra to dispel the jutsu and blow away the mist. Zabuza, finding himself exposed, quickly flashed though hand seals and created six more Mizu Bushin for the children and charged at Kakashi himself.

Two of the clones charged at Naruto. The first one came with a swipe designed to decapitate while the second came with a diagonal slice from the top right. Naruto easily slipped by both attacks and lashed out with his sword. The clone was not fortunate enough to escape unharmed but the other used the opportunity to land a hard kick to his back, sending him sprawling to the floor. The clone threw five kunai into Naruto's back before splitting his skull with it giant sword, only to find a kunai riddled log cut in half in its place.

The first water clone, injured by not dispelled, had to jump out of the way when a barrage of shuriken flew out of a nearby bush. The clone responded with it own projectiles, flushing out the blond. Naruto literally hit the ground running as he charged with his sword at the ready. The clash of metal against metal could be heard around the clearing as he and the clone engaged in a kenjutsu match that was practically a blur to the untrained Tazuna. Soon later, both combatants flew to opposite sides of their arena and started hand sealing.

"_Suiton: Water Dragon no jutsu," _came the clone's voice as Naruto found a wall of water flying at him in the shape of a vicious dragon.

"_Fuuton: Great Breakthrough no jutsu," _came Naruto's reply as he fired a huge gust of wind at the clone. The two jutsu collided for mere moments before Zabuza's water dragon had managed to penetrate Naruto's jutsu and continue on a collision course for the blond. Naruto neatly whipped out his sword and swung it vertically down as the same black flames evaporated the charging water.

The clone grinned when it saw that it had successfully overpowered and block the child's jutsu, but it didn't know was that Naruto never meant for the wind to hurt him. Naruto fluidly gave a second swipe right into the still racing winds. The black flames practically exploded when they contacted the moving, condensed air. The clone didn't have a chance as the flames roared forward only to leave a cloud of steam in its place.

The first clone tried to take the opportunity to land a deadly kunai in Naruto back after he had dispatched the second clone. Naruto, having already fallen for this once, was ready this time as he ducked under the kunai and decked the clone right in the face. The poor copy was sent flying into the air as Naruto simply thought three kunai into the air. The clone righted itself in mid-air and even managed to block the first two kunai that were headed for his body but when he tried to block the third, it curved around his blade and rounded around to stab him in the back of the head since it couldn't dodge in the air. The poor clone came back to the earth as a light sprinkle.

O0o.o0O

Another set of clones had been sent after the Hinata. Normal common sense said not to try to fight a guy with a giant sword with your bare hands so her juuken was out of this fight. She took the kunai that she already had and fired it as the water clone. The clone thought nothing of simply cutting the thing in two as he continued to advance on the girl. Hinata as drew two kunai and entered a deadly kenjutsu dance with the clone. It wasn't long before the other clone began giving long-range support in the form of kunai, shuriken, and the odd water bullet. Easy to suffice, she wasn't going to last long under these conditions; one clone was easily a match for her but the extra interference made this far too dangerous to continue. Hinata dashed backwards and started her own jutsu, creating three Mizu Bushin of her own.

The four Hinatas teamed up on the two Zabuzas and the fight was fairly close to a stalemate with the Hinatas gaining a little ground with their relentless attacks. With the first clone, one of the Hinatas came with a cross attack with her kunai, that was blocked by the Zabuza clone. The second Hinata followed with a sharp uppercut that would have cut his jugular if he hadn't sidestepped it. The first came with a stab to the head while the other followed with an attempt to cut off his feet. Both groups of water clones had been progressing in the nature until one of the Zabuza clones became irritated and decided to end this cycle. By using some clever manipulation, said clone was able to have the other distract the girls while he went though the hand seals.

"_Suiton: Water Wall no jutsu," _came the cry as the tall wall of water appeared around his person and quickly began to expand it radius. Unfortunate for him, in his partner's haste to get to the safety of his jutsu, one of the Hinatas had gotten behind him and landed a fatal blow. Fortunately for him, the defensive jutsu turned offensive was able to dispel all of the water clones that Hinata had summoned and even damage the Hyuuga a bit. Both of the ninja stared each other down, though Hinata wasn't nearly as intimidating as Zabuza was, as it was now a one-on-one battle.

The Zabuza clone flung kunai as the Hyuuga heiress, but she deflected all of them and even stole a few and threw them back as the water clone charged. The water clone cut those out of the air and continued his dash, his sword trailing behind him. He heaving it forward in a vicious swipe that would have cleaved Hinata in two had she not been able to jump up in time. What she didn't know was that this was exactly what he wanted as he fired as many kunai that he could fit into his hand as he could. Hinata knew that she couldn't maneuver to a difference position in the air and there were two many to deflect away so she found that she only had one option. _"I really hope that this works," _she half thought, half prayed.

She twisted her arms around her body as if in an odd hug and swung them with all her might to get the necessary spin while also being concentrating on expelling chakra from every point in her body as she screamed for all she was worth, _"Kaiten."_ The result was a child sized, ball of chakra that was flying right for the clone like a chakra missile. All of the kunai deflected off of her harmlessly, even when the one with the exploding note went off, she still came flying as him at breakneck speeds. She smashed the ground when she landed, the poor clone too shocked or slow to get out of the way. Hinata lay in the middle of a crater with practically no chakra, left with nothing to keep her company but a puddle.

O0o.o0O

Sasuke was squared off against the last two water clones. They both decided to charge him at the same time in order to gain an edge; such a pity that many-on-one taijutsu was just what Sasuke was best at. The first clone came in with a wide swing with his sword. Sasuke ducked under the sword and lost a few hairs in the process, he immediately got up and landed a punch on the gut of the clone. He then flipped it above himself and used him as his own projectile and into the other clone.

The second clone simply sidestepped his comrade and continued with his own charge, being sure to be more careful than his partner. He threw a few kunai while running and then started his own hand seals. Sasuke was forced to dodge the kunai and begin his own jutsu at the same time. The clone was a mere meter (≈3 ft) away from the Uchiha prodigy when he unleashed his attack.

"_Suiton: Water Pulse no jutsu," _he screamed as he threw forward a ball of extremely condense water at the fire user.

"_Katon: Great Fireball no jutsu," Sasuke_ yelled as he breathed out a fireball that was much larger then himself.

When both of the jutsu collided, the ball of water stalled for a short few seconds. Then is suddenly exploded into what was practically a tsunami, completely extinguishing the fireball and the water clone. Now Sasuke didn't have to worry about dodging a ball of water, now he had to worry about avoiding a scalding hot wave of water. He promptly leapt into a tree in order to avoid damage while the tree was not so lucky as the bark snapped, cracked, and blackened under the new heat. _"I have to think of a way to get rid of that water before it messes everyone else up," _he practically screamed in his head.

It hurt his pride to have to use a jutsu that he had been taught by "that dobe, Naruto" but trying to get rid of this much water with fire was not only suicide, but also would take too much chakra. Sasuke jumped from the safety of his tree to boarder between the boiling water and his teammates. _"Doton: Bottomless Draining Pit no jutsu," _he announced as the ground gently sunk into a basin and a dark, rather large hole appeared next to Sasuke. His task done, he swiftly jumped back to the safety of the trees. In essence, Sasuke had just made a giant drain that very effectively handled the water.

It is a pity that his accomplishment was cut short when the first clone recovered and cleaved him in two from behind. What the clone didn't expect though was to find a log that had taken his place. Sasuke appeared from behind, burying a kunai in his skull and reducing him to a puddle.

O0o.o0O

Kakashi had gotten the exclusive honor of fighting the real Zabuza. He didn't get a couple of clones that were only worth 10% of the Demon of the mist, no, he got the whole enchilada and he was doing very well at living up to his name. They had started out with a bout of light-speed kenjutsu. All anyone below a high chunnin level would have seen is a couple of ripples in the water or a sudden clearing in the remaining mist. They finally came to a meeting, Zabuza's giant sword against Kakashi's kunai.

They both separated from each other, killing intent rolling off them in waves. Kakashi came in with an aerial roundhouse kick that Zabuza blocked with his sword, only for a second kick from Kakashi to drive him back, despite his defense. Zabuza retaliated with a sharp snap kick that Kakashi blocked with his arms, still being pushed back a small distance. Keeping with the offence, he followed with a diagonal swing from the bottom right that again forced the ninja to back away.

Knowing that pure defense was going to hurt him sooner than help him, he started hand seals and fired a giant fireball at Zabuza. Zabuza responded with a water wall and followed by firing a barrage of water bullets at Kakashi. Kakashi skillfully evaded them with nothing but agility and managed to fire off a few kunai in the process. After slicing them out of the sky, Zabuza came in with a feinting kick only to give a wild slash. Kakashi's Sharingan saw though this easily and allowed him to duck under the decapitating blade and land a crushing knee in Zabuza's stomach, soon to be followed by a foot, sending him into the air.

Zabuza righted himself in midair and threw his giant sword at the approaching ninja. Kakashi was forced to dodge around the blade and didn't make it in time to attack before Zabuza finished the seals for another jutsu. Four balls of water the size of bowling balls came floating out of the nearby lake. They flattened into thin disk and hummed with a power that let you know that they could easily bring death. They fire off one by one at Kakashi who was forced to duck, evade, and dodge them as they flew by him, one even managed to take a piece of his hair with it.

Before the disk of death could round back again, Kakashi performed his here favorite hand seals to bring forth his only original move. "Raikiri," he announced as the area was filled with the sound of a thousand chirping birds. He moved with the speed necessary to make a move so obvious still so deadly and destroyed the water disk and then moving on to the man who created them. Zabuza made the mistake of trying to block Kakashi's signature move with his sword and it cracked and snapped under the heat and power behind the move before snapping in half. Zabuza, now disarmed, managed to roll out of the way get away with several electrical burns along his hands and arms but saved his torso.

Kakashi took the offensive and came in with a crushing kick. Zabuza tried to block but found that his arms didn't respond to his commands. No mater how much he willed his arms to take a defensive position, they simply refused to follow his orders. Zabuza was left exposed without his sword or any defense as the attack came from the Copy Ninja. Kakashi's foot impacted his chest and sent him flying into a tree, soon followed by several kunai that pinned him down. Kakashi strolled up to him, a kunai ready to finish the job when two senbon needles lodged themselves into Zabuza's neck.

The perpetrator appeared next to Zabuza, wearing a hunter ninja mask that hid their face. "Arigato, I have been after Zabuza for a long time now, you have just made my job much easier." Kakashi walked up to Zabuza and checked for a pulse, when he was satisfied that he was really dead, he allowed the small ninja to take Zabuza's body away in a swirl of leaves.

The rest of team 7 showed up after the mysterious ninja had disappeared. "Kakashi sensei," asked Hinata, "who was that?"

"That was a Hunter ninja. They are sent out by ninja villages in order to kill and dispose of the bodies of rouge ninjas so that their secrets do not fall into enemy hands." Sadly, after engaging in such a difficult fight and having his Sharingan activated for an extended period, his simply collapsed from chakra exhaustion. All three genin gathered around their sensei to make sure that he was okay before taking him to Tazuna's home to rest.

O0o.o0O Several days later at Tazuna's house

Kakashi had finally opened his eyes for the first time in nearly three days. He let out a groan as his body ached nearly everywhere. He looked around the room to find that it was unfamiliar, but still had a homey ambiance about it. Sadly, he didn't get to enjoy this strange place any further when his students came rushing into the room.

"Are you okay, Kakashi-sensei?" asked the worried Hyuuga, "we thought we heard you in pain."

"**Noooo, of course not. Why would he be in pain? It's no like fighting an A-rank missing-nin with a giant sword is difficult or anything," **commented the kyuubi in Naruto's head.

"_Reiku-sama, you shouldn't say such thinks about my teammates," said Naruto in as disapproving a tone as you can take against an all-powerful demon._

"**I call 'em like I see 'em. Besides, you're the only one who can hear me… for now."**

Even though Naruto didn't like the way that sounded, let decided to let it drop since he had more important things to talk about. "Kakashi-sensei, I am not so sure about that hunter-nin that we met before."

Kakashi managed to sit himself up against the headboard before asking, "Why? What did you notice?"

Naruto looked around before answering, "I noticed that I could smell Zabuza's scent coming off of her. I think that either they have met before or they are working together."

Kakashi thought about this for a moment. While he was puzzling about how the scent could have gotten on the hunter ninja without one of them ended up dead, Hinata and Sasuke were trying to figure out how was Naruto able to smell the hunter-nin when he was so far away. Then a thought hit Sasuke, "Wait, did you say her?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes, her scent was definitely that of a girl and she would have been around our age."

Sasuke didn't know why but that disturbed him a little. The idea that a girl his age was that much more powerful than him didn't bother him at all, as far as he was concerned, strength was determined by how much you trained, barring exception like a kekkei genkai. What was this feeling that was so annoying, and why did it matter whether it was a girl or boy? In the end, it wouldn't matter. He would defeat her just like anyone else.

While Sasuke had been thrown off his original train of though by the fact that the hunter-nin was a girl, Hinata was still trying to figure out how Naruto could smell someone's scent. For that matter, how did he get that sword? What was that strange black fire? Why does she get the feeling that he is stronger than he lets on? It seemed like for every answer she got, 5 more questions came with it. Yet again, she found herself wondering who this boy was.

Kakashi spoke up and broke both genin out of their thoughts, "This is definitely a troubling development. With this information, I can only guess that Zabuza is not actually dead." This had brought gasp from the other two teammates but Naruto had already come to this conclusion. "When he comes next time, he will be more careful and prepared so we must train if we want to survive this coming battle," he then paused for a moment before adding, "I have a feeling that we will be seeing that Hunter-nin again very soon."

Sasuke had felt a strange and sudden sense of joy that was squashed as quickly as it had come. Hinata was worried about the coming battle while Naruto was anxious about a change for a good fight.

Kakashi once again broke their thoughts, "Training will start first thing in the morning. All of you rest until then, except for you Naruto," he added, causing Naruto to stop in his tracks, "I need to speak to you in private." Hinata and Sasuke left with a polite bow and a, "Whatever." Naruto stayed back and waited until they were gone before closing the door and asking, "What do you want Kakashi-sensei?"

"Naruto," he started off looking very stern, "You broke the rules I set when you used your sword and revealed your Shadow Fire technique. Do you realize how dangerous that can be? Every time that you use one of your demonic techniques, you come that much closer to someone figuring out your secret, especially Hinata or Sasuke." Naruto looked down at his feet, his invisible ears had flattened on his head and his invisible tailed were motionless because he knew that everything that he was saying was the truth. With every technique that he revealed, he gave everyone another clue about who he really was. He couldn't even full justify using the technique both times. The first time, it was necessary and convenient because they ninja had stolen his sword. The second time however, he could have used any one of half a dozen different fire jutsus he had been taught and gotten the same result. Naruto looked up at his sensei and bowed, "I will be more careful in the future," he said as he turned to leave.

"Naruto, we aren't done yet, Kakashi called out to stop him, "Why didn't you use the _Shunpo_ (Flash Step) technique? You could have easily just said that it was speed or that the Hokage taught it to you."

Naruto turned around with a sigh, "Because is doesn't work well on moving targets." Kakashi gave him a look that said to elaborate. "It's a lot like your Raikiri technique if you didn't have a Sharingan eye, you would have tunnel vision because of the speed that is requires," Kakashi responded with a quiet nod, "Because of that, I don't use it for attacking moving objects. If the enemy changed direction unexpectedly, I would be left defenseless for a split second."

Kakashi nodded with understanding for a second before stopping to think about this. He got an idea. "Fine then, while I am tutoring the others in tree walking, which I know you already and do in your sleep, "Then I will tutor you in how to move effectively at high speeds."

Naruto looked at his sensei and uncle figure in confusion, "But I already know how to move at high speeds."

Kakashi give a genuine, if just the tiniest bit evil, smile, "But do you know how to turn?"

Naruto though about it and knew that there had been plenty of times when he had nearly flattened himself into a tree or person when he had been running around the village at _Shunpo _speeds. He moved fast, that was true, but he cornered like an elephant. Naruto smiled, happy that he would finally be able to fix such an important flaw. When he tried to ask his mom about how she overcame it, she said that she had too much, "air resistance," to be able to use it effectively anymore.

Naruto was about to walk out of the room with a smile on his face when he heard Kakashi's last comment, "So instead of walking up trees, you'll be crashing into them." He could only hope that he wasn't as much of a slave driver as his mother.


End file.
